Features of Java 1.6

Major changes or features of JDK 1.6 version:

1. Support for older Win9x versions dropped; unofficially, Java 6 Update 7 was the last release of Java shown to work on these versions of Windows.[citation needed] This is believed[by whom?] to be due to the major changes in Update 10.

2. Scripting Language Support (JSR 223): Generic API for tight integration with scripting languages, and built-in Mozilla JavaScript Rhino integration

3. Dramatic performance improvements for the core platform,[23][24] and Swing.

4. Improved Web Service support through JAX-WS (JSR 224)

5. JDBC 4.0 support (JSR 221).

6. Java Compiler API (JSR 199): an API allowing a Java program to select and invoke a Java Compiler programmatically.

7. Upgrade of JAXB to version 2.0: Including integration of a StAX parser.

8. Support for pluggable annotations (JSR 269)[25]

9. Many GUI improvements, such as integration of SwingWorker in the API, table sorting and filtering, and true Swing double-buffering (eliminating the gray-area effect).

10. JVM improvements include: synchronization and compiler performance optimizations, new algorithms and upgrades to existing garbage collection algorithms, and application start-up performance.