Java version history
November 11, 2019
In the current Java landscape, Java 8 is still the used version, even though it's support cycle is ending. Java 11, the latest LTS release, is slowly gaining popularity. This can be explained by changes implemented in Java 9, which make the switch to posting 8 versions non-trivial.
Here we are going to recap versions from 8 to the latest one, 13.
Java 8
Was released on 18th March 2014. Currently the most prominent Java version in production.
Support for commercial users stopped in January 2019, but it will be supported for personal users until December 2020.
- Biggest change is adding support for lambda expressions under Project Lambda. This also enables functional-style operations on streams and MapReduce transformations on Collections.
- New Date and Time API, based on Joda Time project
- Project Nashorn, a JavaScript runtime which allows developers to embed JavaScript code within applications
- Modularization of the JDK under Project Jigsaw
- JShell: The Java Shell
- Ahead of time compilation
- XML catalogs
- Java implementation of Reactive Streams
- Local-variable type inference var x = new ArrayList<String>();
- Experimental Java-based JIT compiler
- Application class-data sharing
- Local-Variable Syntax for Lambda Parameters which allows: list.stream() .map((@Notnull var s) -> s.toLowerCase()) .collect(Collectors.toList());
- Launch Single-File Source-Code Programs
- HTTP Client (Standard)
- Remove the Java EE and CORBA Modules
- Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3
- Deprecate Project Nashorn
- JVM Constants API
- A Low-Pause-Time Garbage Collector
- Abortable Mixed Collections for G1
- Promptly Return Unused Committed Memory from G1
- Reimplementation of Legacy Socket API
- Dynamic CDS Archives
- ZGC: Uncommit Unused Memory
String htmlBlock = """
<html>
<body>
<p>My web page</p>
</body>
<html>
""";
Switch Expression:
int numberOfLetters = switch (dayOfWeek) {
case MONDAY, FRIDAY, SUNDAY -> 6;
case TUESDAY -> 7;
case THURSDAY, SATURDAY -> 8;
case WEDNESDAY -> 9;
default -> throw new IllegalStateException("Huh?: " + day);
};
