Java Moving Forward With Faster Pace Release Schedule, Modular System

Among the key messages and themes that emerged at the JavaOne 2017 conference, held in San Francisco Oct. 1 to 5, is that the Java community is moving ahead faster now than at any other point in the popular programming language’s history. The new Java 9 Standard Edition (SE) and Java Developer Kit are now available to provide developers with many new features. Among the major enhancements in Java 9 is a new module system that has been integrated through a decade long effort called Project Jigsaw. Java is also set to evolve faster, with a new release cycle that will bring updates ever six months. Java Enterprise Edition (EE) is also moving forward under a new model that will be operated by the open-source Eclipse Foundation. We take a look at the latest Java developments in this slide show.

A hallmark of Java since its’ earliest days has been backwards compatibility and stability. Mark Reinhold Chief Architect, Java Platform Group at Oracle stated during his JavaOne keynote on Oct. 2 that “if your code only uses standard Java SE 8 APIs then it will most likely work on JDK 9 without change.”

Project Jigsaw is an effort that Oracle has been talking about since September 2010 just after the company completed its’ acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Jigsaw is an effort to make Java into a more modular stack, including a module subsystem to help make the programming language more efficient.

Thanks to Project Jigsaw, there is now a simpler module system in Java 9 that developers can rely on to build and compile code. The modular approach also means that developers can choose to include the module they need, rather than being required to use an entire stack.

“Reliable configuration means that if one module requires another, then that other module will be present and none of the modules that are present will conflict with any others,” Reinhold said.

JShell debuts in Java 9 to provide Java developers with an interactive shell that can execute small commands and display results, without the need to compile code.

The next major release of Java has been renamed from Java 10 to Java 18.3 and will be out in March 2018. Going forward Java will be released on a six month cadence, introducing features as they are ready. Among the new capabilities set to land in upcoming Java releases is Project Valhalla which introduces specialized generics and value types to Java.

Serverless technology, also known as Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) is a new era of computing popularized first by the Amazon Lamda service. Java now also has a serverless effort with the Fn Project which was demonstrated at JavaOne.

The Java Enterprise Edition (EE) development is now moving to the Eclipse Foundation and being renamed EE4J. Among the supporters of the EE4J effort are IBM and Red Hat.