Please could we have support for isValid() method in JDBC driver?

There is one sample implementation posted here: http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-jdbc/2012-01/msg00001.php

Is there a good reason why the pg jdbc driver currently throws “Method org.postgresql.jdbc4.Jdbc4Connection.isValid(int) is not yet implemented?”

Is there a better solution to checking if a connection is valid rather than using the isValid() method?