New Software Releases (Ubuntu-10.04, Firefox-4.0Beta2/3 & Netbeans6.9.1)!!!

Just a short/quick post to note that it seems to be a good time for software releases at the moment:

• The latest version of Ubuntu, 10.04 (Lucid Lynx), is an LTS(Long Term Support) version, and was released on April 29, 2010. Woot!!! Woot!!! Woot!!! 
• Firefox released the new Version 4 Beta a few weeks ago and now they've also released an update (i.e: Firefox 4.0 Beta 2....update....and Beta 3 came out on the 11th Aug), here's a link to the release notes and some interesting info: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/4.0b2/releasenotes/
• Netbeans has released the new 0.0.1 version release of Netbeans 6.9.1. The release notes are at: http://netbeans.org/community/news/show/1488.html.

Personally when it comes to large releases from companies I trust (FF, etc) I'm happy to use Beta versions on my PC's and Laptop. So I have a tendency to upgrade to the next version of 'most' bits of software (FF, Linux, JSE/JDK, JEE, etc). Regardless of new versions or even the use of Beta's but I tend to find that I'm OK and don't hit bad bugs from upgrading to early. That's good. So here's my opinions based on actual use of these tools and the new Betas/versions (well FF anyways....bit lazier so far on Ubuntu upgrades.... :-) )

Netbeans 6.9.1 Release

- Release Notes Overview: http://netbeans.org/community/news/show/1488.html

- Further Release Notes 6.9 Overview: http://netbeans.org/community/releases/69/

- List of Bug Fixes For The 6.9.1 Version: http://wiki.netbeans.org/NetBeans6.9PatchesInfo. This contains a list of the bugs fixed in the point release.

- And some EVEN better release notes for 6.9.1 August 4th 2010 Release: http://netbeans.org/community/releases/69/relnotes.html. These release notes kick ass in their detail. I reference these below for the list of some of the changes.

What's New in 6.9.1 - A more detailed list from above.

• Availability of the latest IDE bundled with JavaFX SDK 1.3.1
• Improvements to the JavaFX debugger
• Important usability issues fixed in the JavaFX Composer and Editor
• Critical bug fixes made to other modules since the 6.9 final release

The following updates to the 6.8 release included in version 6.9 also apply to 6.9.1:

• JavaFX Composer to simplify and visualize JavaFX development
• Support for Equinox and Felix OSGi frameworks in NetBeans Platform
• Spring Framework 3.0 library support
• Java Card^TM 3 Connected
• Rails 3.0 Beta support
• PHP Zend Framework support
• Support for JSR-299, Contexts and Dependency Injection (CDI)
• Additional Enhancements are listed on the NetBeans IDE 6.9 New and Noteworthy page.

Note: The Java ^TM SE Development Kit (JDK) 5.0 is not supported on any platform for this release. You must have JDK 6.0 on your system to install and run NetBeans IDE 6.9.1.

Ubuntu Downloads and Free Install CD's

• https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ <-- for a free copy of Ubuntu 10.04 CD sent to your house....GREAT!!!
• http://www.ubuntu.com/server/get-ubuntu/download <-- to download the ISO

Firefox4.0-Beta2-Updates/New Functionality

- The following link shows the updates and the changes to the functionality from Beta 1 to 2. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/beta/features/#feature-switch

- Furthermore I'm always interested in performance improvements. FF4Beta2 works on improving JavaScript, which given the state of the Web in our 'Web 2.0' fancy-shmancy world we live in is now an important feature to improve the speed of: http://blog.mozilla.com/dmandelin/2010/07/19/jagermonkey-update-getting-faster/. And so how does it get this extra performance. Well in a bunch of ways, bug fixes, perf., improvements, etc., etc., etc., but it also points out in dmandelin's blog that they used Ropes for improving the performance of Strings in JavaScript. The primary improvements going to occur when you do a lot of adds, removes from inside the middle of a string, and where in the normal case since a String is immutable you's need to make a new copy of inserts etc. Which gives you at least O(n) performance but Ropes convert a String to a tree structure so an insert in the middle of a string simply points a node to a new location of the new bit of the string we are adding. performance at O(1)!!! Beat that!!! Before you get to excited keep in mind you need to understand WHEN these are to be used or else you'll cost yourself performance but in the right case Speed improvements here we come. Something to keep in mind for the future if I ever need to perf., tune some code manipulating Strings heavily.



Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_%28computer_science%29 for an overview discussion of Strings vs. Ropes.