Sun Announces Availability of Java Platform Standard Edition 6
Woohoo!!
So do you guys think jME is going to move to Java 6 anytime soon?
One feature that I’m really excited about is the included JSR 223 Scripting API, which allows developers to build scripting languages that use the standard (and any user built) Java libraries and can integrate with regular Java code. Check out the scripting engine project which provides implementations of the ScriptEngine interface for common scripting languages (groovy, lua, jython, ruby, perl, beanshell).
This could mean huge things for Java gaming, because it’d be extremely easy to integrate a scripting framework into your game, by exposing common script interfaces, which could be implemented by simply declaring the required functions in the script that match a defined Java interface, or some scripts could even use object oriented features to implement the interface in the script, and pass back the .
Then you could develop a simple API that the scripts could use to communicate with your game, and then you’ll have a nice simple layer that allows users and non-hardcore coder game designers to start tweaking the game.
Scripting can make any game into a flexible piece of user modifiable software, if any of you have tried out Gary’s Mod for half-life 2 you’ll know how powerful this can be.
Nobody stops you from using Java 6 with jME right away. I even think some people are already using the scripting stuff from Java 6 for a while.
I don't think we will have dependencies to Java 6 API in the core any time soon (though we did not discuss this yet). But that should not stop anyone using scripting or even making an extension to ease its use.
Similar to the adoption of 5.0, it will be dependent on Apple release, which tends to be a few (more than a couple) months later.
Cool! Then I'll continue hacking away at some jME game scripting work.
I guess I was wondering more if jME had any plans to include some hooks into the scripting framework as part of the jmex.* packge perhaps? Or is this something that would be to game specific. Maybe a scripting framework would require to many modifications it might as well be built from scratch for each game?
Although I'm pretty confident that a generic extendable scripting framework that allows game developers to expose scriptable interfaces into their game system is possible (I guess I'll find out more when I get around to implementing a game that includes application specific scripting support).
I even think some people are already using the scripting stuff from Java 6 for a while.
@irrisor do you know who specifically is working on scripting in jME? I'd be extremely interested into checking out any projects that are already using it!
A quick side note though. There are (or were last time I checked) issues with 1.6 with the Swing integration (JMEDesktop) stuff.
With 1.5, I had several issues with JMEDesktop on Ubuntu Edgy, but using 1.6 I HAVE NONE! 
All the wierd drawing artifacts are gone and as far as I can tell, it acts just like swing. Imagine that! 
Hope that helps.
It was more issues interacting with certain components (I believe scrollbars were one problem).
Maybe that issue was in one of the RC's or a platform specific issue.
Could be, I haven't re-tested the issue recently.