The
Java language
Java is a high-level, class-based, object-oriented programming language that is designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible. It is a general-purpose programming language intended to let programmers ''write once, run any ...
has undergone several changes since
JDK
The Java Development Kit (JDK) is a distribution of Java Technology by Oracle Corporation. It implements the Java Language Specification (JLS) and the Java Virtual Machine Specification (JVMS) and provides the Standard Edition (SE) of the Java ...
1.0 as well as numerous additions of
classes and packages to the standard
library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
. Since J2SE 1.4, the evolution of the Java language has been governed by the
Java Community Process
The Java Community Process (JCP), established in 1998, is a formalized mechanism that allows interested parties to develop standard technical specifications for Java technology. Anyone can become a JCP Member by filling a form available at thJCP w ...
(JCP), which uses ''Java Specification Requests'' (JSRs) to propose and specify additions and changes to the
Java platform
Java is a set of computer software and specifications developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems, which was later acquired by the Oracle Corporation, that provides a system for developing application software and deploying it in a cro ...
. The language is specified by the ''Java Language Specification'' (JLS); changes to the JLS are managed unde
JSR 901 In September 2017, Mark Reinhold, chief Architect of the Java Platform, proposed to change the release train to "one feature release every six months" rather than the then-current two-year schedule.
This proposal took effect for all following versions, and is still the current release schedule.
In addition to the language changes, other changes have been made to the
Java Class Library
The Java Class Library (JCL) is a set of dynamically loadable libraries that Java Virtual Machine (JVM) languages can call at run time. Because the Java Platform is not dependent on a specific operating system, applications cannot rely on any of ...
over the years, which has grown from a few hundred classes in JDK 1.0 to over three thousand in J2SE 5. Entire new
API
An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...
s, such as
Swing and
Java2D
Java 2D is an API for drawing two-dimensional Computer graphics, graphics using the Java (programming language), Java programming language. Every Java 2D drawing operation can ultimately be treated as ''filling'' a ''shape'' using a ''paint'' and ...
, have been introduced, and many of the original JDK 1.0 classes and methods have been
deprecated
In several fields, especially computing, deprecation is the discouragement of use of some terminology, feature, design, or practice, typically because it has been superseded or is no longer considered efficient or safe, without completely removing ...
. Some programs allow conversion of Java programs from one version of the
Java platform
Java is a set of computer software and specifications developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems, which was later acquired by the Oracle Corporation, that provides a system for developing application software and deploying it in a cro ...
to an older one (for example Java 5.0 backported to 1.4) (see
Java backporting tools Java backporting tools are programs (usually written in Java) that convert Java classes bytecodes from one version of the Java Platform
Java is a set of computer software and specifications developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems, ...
).
Regarding Oracle Java SE Support Roadmap,
version 19 is the latest one, and versions 17, 11 and 8 are the currently supported
long-term support
Long-term support (LTS) is a product lifecycle management policy in which a stable release of computer software is maintained for a longer period of time than the standard edition. The term is typically reserved for open-source software, where i ...
(LTS) versions, where Oracle Customers will receive Oracle Premier Support. Java 8 LTS the last
free software
Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...
public update for commercial use was released by Oracle in March 2022, while Oracle continues to release no-cost public Java 8 updates for development
and personal use indefinitely.
Java 7 is no longer publicly supported. For Java 11, long-term support will not be provided by Oracle for the public; instead, the broader
OpenJDK
OpenJDK (Open Java Development Kit) is a free and open-source implementation of the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE). It is the result of an effort Sun Microsystems began in 2006. The implementation is licensed under the GPL-2.0-only w ...
community, as
Eclipse Adoptium or
others, is expected to perform the work.
Java 17 the latest (3rd) LTS was released on September 14, 2021.
Java 19 General Availability began on September 20, 2022.
Release table
JDK 1.0
The first version was released on January 23, 1996.
The first stable version, JDK 1.0.2, is called Java 1.
[
]
JDK 1.1
Major additions in the release on February 19, 1997 included:[Version 1.1 press release](_blank)
Sun.
* an extensive retooling of the AWT event model
* inner class In object-oriented programming (OOP), an inner class or nested class is a class declared entirely within the body of another class or interface. It is distinguished from a subclass.
Overview
An instance of a normal or top-level class can exist on ...
es added to the language
* JavaBeans
* JDBC
Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) is an application programming interface (API) for the programming language Java, which defines how a client may access a database. It is a Java-based data access technology used for Java database connectivity. I ...
* RMI and serialization
* reflection Reflection or reflexion may refer to:
Science and technology
* Reflection (physics), a common wave phenomenon
** Specular reflection, reflection from a smooth surface
*** Mirror image, a reflection in a mirror or in water
** Signal reflection, in ...
which supported Introspection only, no modification at runtime was possible. (The ability to modify objects reflectively was added in J2SE 1.2, by introducing the class and its subclasses such as the class.)
* JIT (Just In Time) compiler on Microsoft Windows platforms, produced for JavaSoft by Symantec
* Internationalization
In economics, internationalization or internationalisation is the process of increasing involvement of enterprises in international markets, although there is no agreed definition of internationalization. Internationalization is a crucial strateg ...
and Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...
support originating from Taligent
Taligent Inc. (a portmanteau of "talent" and "intelligent") was an American software company. Based on the Pink object-oriented operating system conceived by Apple in 1988, Taligent Inc. was incorporated as an Apple/IBM partnership in 1992, and ...
J2SE 1.2
The release on December 8, 1998 and subsequent releases through J2SE 5.0 were rebranded retrospectively Java 2 and the version name "J2SE" ( Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition) replaced JDK to distinguish the base platform from J2EE ( Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition) and J2ME ( Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition). This was a very significant release of Java as it tripled the size of the Java platform to 1520 classes in 59 packages. Major additions included:[Version 1.2 press release](_blank)
Sun.
* strictfp
strictfp is an obsolete and unused reserved word in the Java programming language. Previously, this keyword was used as a modifier that restricted floating-point calculations to IEEE 754 semantics in order to ensure portability. The strictfp keywor ...
keyword (by JVM 17 an obsolete keyword, shouldn't be used in new code)
* the Swing graphical API was integrated into the core classes
* Sun's JVM was equipped with a JIT compiler
In computing, just-in-time (JIT) compilation (also dynamic translation or run-time compilations) is a way of executing computer code that involves compilation during execution of a program (at run time) rather than before execution. This may cons ...
for the first time
* Java plug-in
* Java IDL In software development, Java Interface Definition Language, or Java IDL, is an implementation of the CORBA specification and enables interoperability and connectivity with heterogeneous objects. It is basically an Object Request Broker provided wit ...
, an IDL implementation for CORBA
The Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is a standard defined by the Object Management Group (OMG) designed to facilitate the communication of systems that are deployed on diverse platforms. CORBA enables collaboration between s ...
interoperability
* Collections
Collection or Collections may refer to:
* Cash collection, the function of an accounts receivable department
* Collection (church), money donated by the congregation during a church service
* Collection agency, agency to collect cash
* Collection ...
framework
J2SE 1.3
The most notable changes in the May 8, 2000 release were:[Version 1.3 press release](_blank)
Sun.
* HotSpot JVM included (the HotSpot JVM was first released in April 1999 for the J2SE 1.2 JVM)
* RMI was modified to support optional compatibility with CORBA
The Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is a standard defined by the Object Management Group (OMG) designed to facilitate the communication of systems that are deployed on diverse platforms. CORBA enables collaboration between s ...
* Java Naming and Directory Interface
The Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) is a Java API for a directory service that allows Java software clients to discover and look up data and resources (in the form of Java objects) via a name. Like all Java APIs that interface with host ...
(JNDI) included in core libraries (previously available as an extension)
* Java Platform Debugger Architecture (JPDA)
* JavaSound
* Synthetic proxy classes
Java 1.3 is the last release of Java to officially support Microsoft Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturi ...
.
J2SE 1.4
The February 6, 2002 release was the first release of the Java platform developed under the Java Community Process a
JSR 59
Major changes included:[Version 1.4 press release](_blank)
* Language changes
** assert
Assertion or assert may refer to:
Computing
* Assertion (software development), a computer programming technique
* assert.h, a header file in the standard library of the C programming language
* Assertion definition language, a specification lang ...
keyword (specified i
JSR 41
* Library improvements
** Regular expressions
A regular expression (shortened as regex or regexp; sometimes referred to as rational expression) is a sequence of characters that specifies a search pattern in text. Usually such patterns are used by string-searching algorithms for "find" o ...
modeled after Perl
Perl is a family of two high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it also referred to its redesigned "sister language", Perl 6, before the latter's name was offic ...
regular expressions
** Exception chaining allows an exception to encapsulate original lower-level exception
** Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet. IPv ...
) support
** Non-blocking I/O
In computer science, asynchronous I/O (also non-sequential I/O) is a form of input/output processing that permits other processing to continue before the transmission has finished. A name used for asynchronous I/O in the Windows API is overlappe ...
(named NIO) (specified i
JSR 51
** Logging API (specified i
JSR 47
** Image I/O API for reading and writing images in formats like JPEG and PNG
** Integrated XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable ...
parser and XSLT processor (JAXP
In computing, the Java API for XML Processing, or JAXP ( ), one of the Java XML Application programming interfaces, provides the capability of validating and parsing XML documents. It has three basic parsing interfaces:
* the Document Object M ...
) (specified i
JSR 5
an
JSR 63
** Integrated security and cryptography extensions ( JCE, JSSE, JAAS)
** Java Web Start
In computing, Java Web Start (also known as JavaWS, javaws or JAWS) is a deprecated framework developed by Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) that allows users to start application software for the Java Platform directly from the Internet using a web b ...
included (Java Web Start was first released in March 2001 for J2SE 1.3) (specified i
JSR 56
** Preferences API (java.util.prefs
)
Public support and security updates for Java 1.4 ended in October 2008. Paid security updates for Oracle customers ended in February 2013.
Java SE 5
The release on September 30, 2004 was originally numbered 1.5, which is still used as the internal version number. The number was changed to "better reflect the level of maturity, stability, scalability and security of the J2SE". This version was developed unde
JSR 176
Java SE 5 entered its end-of-public-updates period on April 8, 2008; updates are no longer available to the public as of November 3, 2009. Updates were available to paid Oracle customers until May 2015.
Tiger added a number of significant new language features:[Version 1.5 press release](_blank)
* Generics: provides compile-time (static) type safety
In computer science, type safety and type soundness are the extent to which a programming language discourages or prevents type errors. Type safety is sometimes alternatively considered to be a property of facilities of a computer language; that i ...
for collections and eliminates the need for most typecasts (type conversion) (specified b
JSR 14
* Metadata: also called annotation
An annotation is extra information associated with a particular point in a document or other piece of information. It can be a note that includes a comment or explanation. Annotations are sometimes presented in the margin of book pages. For anno ...
s; allows language constructs such as classes and methods to be tagged with additional data, which can then be processed by metadata-aware utilities (specified b
JSR 175
* Autoboxing/unboxing: automatic conversions between primitive type
In computer science, primitive data types are a set of basic data types from which all other data types are constructed. Specifically it often refers to the limited set of data representations in use by a particular processor, which all compiled pr ...
s (such as int
) and primitive wrapper class In object-oriented programming, a wrapper class is a class (computer programming), class that Encapsulation (computer programming), encapsulates data type, types, so that those types can be used to create object (computer science), object instance ( ...
es (such as ) (specified b
JSR 201
* Enumerations
An enumeration is a complete, ordered listing of all the items in a collection. The term is commonly used in mathematics and computer science to refer to a listing of all of the elements of a set. The precise requirements for an enumeration (fo ...
: the enum
keyword creates a typesafe, ordered list of values (such as Day.MONDAY
, Day.TUESDAY
, etc.); previously this could only be achieved by non-typesafe constant integers or manually constructed classes (typesafe enum pattern) (specified b
JSR 201
* Varargs
In mathematics and in computer programming, a variadic function is a function of indefinite arity, i.e., one which accepts a variable number of arguments. Support for variadic functions differs widely among programming languages.
The term ''vari ...
: the last parameter of a method can now be declared using a type name followed by three dots (e.g. void drawtext(String... lines)
); in the calling code any number of parameters of that type can be used and they are then placed in an array to be passed to the method, or alternatively the calling code can pass an array of that type
* Enhanced for each
loop: the for
loop syntax is extended with special syntax for iterating over each member of either an array or any , such as the standard classes (specified b
JSR 201
* Improved semantics of execution for multi-threaded Java programs; the new Java memory model addresses issues of complexity, effectiveness, and performance of previous specifications
* Static import
Static import is a feature introduced in the Java programming language that allows members (fields and methods) which have been scoped within their container class as public static, to be used in Java code without specifying the class in which the ...
s
There were also the following improvements to the standard libraries:
* Automatic stub generation for RMI objects
* Swing: New skinnable look and feel
In software design, the look and feel of a graphical user interface comprises aspects of its design, including elements such as colors, shapes, layout, and typefaces (the "look"), as well as the behavior of dynamic elements such as buttons, boxe ...
, called synth
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
* Th
concurrency utilities
in packag
* Scanner class for parsing data from various input streams and buffers
Java 5 is the last release of Java to officially support Microsoft Windows 98
Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The second operating system in the 9x line, it is the successor to Windows 95, and was released to ...
and Windows ME
Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me (marketed with the pronunciation of the pronoun "me"), is an operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is the successor to Windo ...
, while Windows Vista
Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...
was the newest version of Windows that Java SE 5 was supported on prior to Java 5 going end-of-life in October of 2009.
Java 5 Update 5 (1.5.0_05) is the last release of Java to work on Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturi ...
(with Internet Explorer 5.5 installed) and Windows NT 4.0.
Java 5 was first available on Apple Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and was the default version of Java installed on Apple Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).
Public support and security updates for Java 1.5 ended in November 2009. Paid security updates for Oracle customers ended in April 2015.
Versioning change
This version introduced a new versioning system for the Java language, although the old versioning system continued to be used for developer libraries:
This correspondence continued through later releases (Java 6 = JDK 1.6, Java 7 = JDK 1.7, and so on).
Java 5 updates
Java SE 6
As of the version released on December 11, 2006, Sun replaced the name "J2SE" with Java SE and dropped the ".0" from the version number.[Java brand naming](_blank)
Internal numbering for developers remains 1.6.0.
Java webnotes, Sun.
This version was developed unde
JSR 270
During the development phase, new builds including enhancements and bug fixes were released approximately weekly. Beta versions were released in February and June 2006, leading up to a final release that occurred on December 11, 2006.
Major changes included in this version:[Version 1.6 press release](_blank)
[Version 1.6 full list of changes](_blank)
* 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. This is believed to be due to the major changes in Update 10.
* Scripting Language Support (JSR 223 Scripting for the Java Platform is a framework for embedding scripts into Java source code.
There is no requirement for a given Java virtual machine (JVM) to include any engines by default, but the Oracle JVM (Java 6 and later) includes a JavaScr ...
): Generic API for tight integration with scripting languages, and built-in Mozilla
Mozilla (stylized as moz://a) is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, spreads and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting exclusively free software and open standards, w ...
JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...
Rhino
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...
integration.
* Dramatic performance improvements for the core platform,[Java Lobby](_blank)
. and Swing.
* Improved Web Service support through JAX-WS
The Jakarta XML Web Services (JAX-WS; formerly Java API for XML Web Services) is a Jakarta EE API for creating web services, particularly SOAP services. JAX-WS is one of the Java XML programming APIs.
Overview
The JAX-WS 2.2 specificatioJSR 2 ...
(JSR 224
The Jakarta XML Web Services (JAX-WS; formerly Java API for XML Web Services) is a Jakarta EE Application programming interface, API for creating web services, particularly SOAP services. JAX-WS is one of the Java XML programming APIs.
Overview
...
).
* JDBC
Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) is an application programming interface (API) for the programming language Java, which defines how a client may access a database. It is a Java-based data access technology used for Java database connectivity. I ...
4.0 support (JSR 221
Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) is an application programming interface (API) for the programming language Java, which defines how a client may access a database. It is a Java-based data access technology used for Java database connectivity. I ...
).
* Java Compiler API (JSR 199
A Java compiler is a compiler for the programming language Java (programming language), Java. The most common form of output from a Java compiler is Java class files containing platform-neutral Java bytecode, but there are also compilers that outp ...
): an API allowing a Java program to select and invoke a Java Compiler programmatically.
* Upgrade of JAXB
Java XML Binding (JAXB; formerly Java Architecture for XML Binding) is a software framework that allows Jakarta EE, Java EE developers to map Java class (computer science), classes to XML representations. JAXB provides two main features: the abi ...
to version 2.0: Including integration of a StAX
Streaming API for XML (StAX) is an application programming interface ( API) to read and write XML documents, originating from the Java programming language community.
Traditionally, XML APIs are either:
* DOM based - the entire document is read i ...
parser.
* Support for pluggable annotations
An annotation is extra information associated with a particular point in a document or other piece of information. It can be a note that includes a comment or explanation. Annotations are sometimes presented in the margin of book pages. For anno ...
(JSR 269
In the Java computer programming language, an annotation is a form of syntactic metadata that can be added to Java source code. Classes, methods, variables, parameters and Java packages may be annotated. Like Javadoc tags, Java annotations can b ...
).
* Many GUI
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...
improvements, such as integration of SwingWorker in the API, table sorting and filtering, and true Swing double-buffering
In computer science, multiple buffering is the use of more than one buffer to hold a block of data, so that a "reader" will see a complete (though perhaps old) version of the data, rather than a partially updated version of the data being creat ...
(eliminating the gray-area effect).
* JVM
A Java virtual machine (JVM) is a virtual machine that enables a computer to run Java programs as well as programs written in other languages that are also compiled to Java bytecode. The JVM is detailed by a specification that formally describes ...
improvements include: synchronization and compiler
In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs tha ...
performance optimizations, new algorithms and upgrades to existing garbage collection algorithms, and application start-up performance.
Java 6 can be installed to Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...
10.5 (Leopard) running on 64-bit (Core 2 Duo and higher) processor machines. Java 6 is also supported by both 32-bit and 64-bit machines running Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).
Java 6 reached the end of its supported life in February 2013, at which time all public updates, including security updates, were scheduled to be stopped. Oracle released two more updates to Java 6 in March and April 2013, which patched some security vulnerabilities.
Java 6 updates
After Java 6 release, Sun, and later Oracle, released several updates which, while not changing any public API, enhanced end-user usability or fixed bugs.
Java SE 7
Java 7 is a major update that was launched on July 7, 2011 and was made available for developers on July 28, 2011. The development period was organized into thirteen milestones; on June 6, 2011, the last of the thirteen milestones was finished. On average, 8 builds (which generally included enhancements and bug fixes) were released per milestone. Th
feature list at the OpenJDK 7 project
lists many of the changes.
Additions in Java 7 include:
* JVM
A Java virtual machine (JVM) is a virtual machine that enables a computer to run Java programs as well as programs written in other languages that are also compiled to Java bytecode. The JVM is detailed by a specification that formally describes ...
support for dynamic languages, with the new invokedynamic
bytecode under JSR-292, following the prototyping work currently done on the Multi Language Virtual Machine
* Compressed 64-bit pointers (available in Java 6 with -XX:+UseCompressedOops
)
* These small language changes (grouped under a project named Coin):
:* Strings in switch
In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...
:* Automatic resource management in try-statement aka ''try-with-resources statement''
:* Improved type inference
Type inference refers to the automatic detection of the type of an expression in a formal language. These include programming languages and mathematical type systems, but also natural languages in some branches of computer science and linguistic ...
for generic instance creation, aka ''the diamond operator <>''
:* Simplified varargs method declaration
:* Binary integer literals
:* Allowing underscores in numeric literals
:* Catching multiple exception types and rethrowing exceptions with improved type checking
* Concurrency utilities under JSR 166
* New file I/O library (defined by JSR 203) adding support for multiple file systems, file metadata and symbolic links. The new packages are java.nio.file
, java.nio.file.attribute
and java.nio.file.spi
* Timsort
Timsort is a hybrid, stable sorting algorithm, derived from merge sort and insertion sort, designed to perform well on many kinds of real-world data. It was implemented by Tim Peters in 2002 for use in the Python programming language. The algor ...
is used to sort collections and arrays of objects instead of merge sort
In computer science, merge sort (also commonly spelled as mergesort) is an efficient, general-purpose, and comparison-based sorting algorithm. Most implementations produce a stable sort, which means that the order of equal elements is the same ...
* Library-level support for elliptic curve cryptography
Elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC) is an approach to public-key cryptography based on the algebraic structure of elliptic curves over finite fields. ECC allows smaller keys compared to non-EC cryptography (based on plain Galois fields) to provide ...
algorithms
* An XRender
The X Rendering Extension (Render or XRender) is an extension to the X11 core protocol to implement image compositing in the X server, to allow an efficient display of transparent images.
History
It was written by Keith Packard in 2000 an ...
pipeline for Java 2D, which improves handling of features specific to modern GPUs
A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobil ...
* New platform APIs for the graphics features originally implemented in version 6u10 as unsupported APIs
* Enhanced library-level support for new network protocols, including SCTP
The Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is a computer networking communications protocol in the transport layer of the Internet protocol suite. Originally intended for Signaling System 7 (SS7) message transport in telecommunication, the p ...
and Sockets Direct Protocol
The Sockets Direct Protocol (SDP) is a transport-agnostic protocol to support stream sockets over remote direct memory access (RDMA) network fabrics. SDP was originally defined by the Software Working Group (SWG) of the InfiniBand Trade Associa ...
* Upstream updates to XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable ...
and Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...
* Java deployment rule sets
Lambda (Java's implementation of lambda functions), Jigsaw (Java's implementation of modules
Broadly speaking, modularity is the degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit of flexibility and variety in use. The concept of modularity is used primarily to reduce complexity by breaking a s ...
), and part of Coin were dropped from Java 7, and released as part of Java 8 (except for Jigsaw, which was released in Java 9).
Java 7 was the default version to download on java.com from April 2012 until Java 8 was released.
Java 7 updates
Oracle issued public updates to the Java 7 family on a quarterly basis until April 2015 when the product reached the end of its public availability. Further updates for JDK 7, which are scheduled to continue until Jul 2022, are only made available to customers with a support contract.
Java SE 8
Java 8 was released on March 18, 2014, and included some features that were planned for Java 7 but later deferred.
Work on features was organized in terms of JDK Enhancement Proposals (JEPs).
* JSR 335, JEP 126: Language-level support for lambda expressions Lambda expression may refer to:
*Lambda expression in computer programming, also called an anonymous function, is a defined function not bound to an identifier.
* Lambda expression in lambda calculus, a formal system in mathematical logic and ...
(officially, lambda expressions; unofficially, closures) under Project Lambda and default methods (virtual extension method
In object-oriented computer programming, an extension method is a method added to an object after the original object was compiled. The modified object is often a class, a prototype or a type. Extension methods are features of some object-orie ...
s) which can be used to add methods to interfaces without breaking existing implementations. There was an ongoing debate in the Java community on whether to add support for lambda expressions. Sun later declared that lambda expressions would be included in Java and asked for community input to refine the feature. Supporting lambda expressions also enables functional-style operations on streams of elements, such as MapReduce
MapReduce is a programming model and an associated implementation for processing and generating big data sets with a parallel, distributed algorithm on a cluster.
A MapReduce program is composed of a ''map'' procedure, which performs filtering ...
-inspired transformations on collections. Default methods can be used by an author of an API to add new methods to an interface without breaking the old code using it. Although it was not their primary intent, default methods can also be used for multiple inheritance of behavior (but not state).
* , a JavaScript runtime which can run JavaScript code embedded within applications
*
* Unsigned integer arithmetic
*
*
*
* (direct launching of JavaFX application JARs)
*
Java 8 is not supported on Windows XP
Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...
but as of JDK 8 update 25, it can still be installed and run under Windows XP. Previous updates of JDK 8 could be run under XP by downloading archived zip format file and unzipping it for the executable.The last version of Java 8 could run on XP is update 251.But its components compatibility starts to break on unsupported OS in early build during Java 8 updates development.
From October 2014, Java 8 was the default version to download (and then again the download replacing Java 9) from the official website. "Oracle will continue to provide Public Updates and auto updates of Java SE 8, Indefinitely for Personal Users".
Java 8 updates
Java SE 9
Java SE 9 was made available on September 21, 2017, due to controversial acceptance of the current implementation of Project Jigsaw by Java Executive Committee, which led Oracle to fix some open issues and concerns, and to refine some critical technical questions. In the last days of June 2017, Java Community Process expressed nearly unanimous consensus on the proposed Module System scheme.
* JSR 376: Modularization of the JDK under Project Jigsaw (Java Platform Module System
The Java Platform Module System specifies a distribution format for collections of Java code and associated resources. It also specifies a repository for storing these collections, or ''modules'', and identifies how they can be discovered, loaded a ...
)
* JavaDB
Apache Derby (previously distributed as IBM Cloudscape) is a relational database management system (RDBMS) developed by the Apache Software Foundation that can be embedded in Java programs and used for online transaction processing. It has a 3.5 ...
was removed from JDK
* , define a standard means to invoke the equivalents of various java.util.concurrent.atomic
and sun.misc.Unsafe
operations
* , allow @SafeVarargs on private instance methods; Allow effectively-final variables to be used as resources in the try-with-resources statement; Allow diamond with anonymous classes if the argument type of the inferred type is denotable; Complete the removal, begun in Java SE 8, of underscore from the set of legal identifier names; Support for private methods in interfaces
* : JShell JShell is a Java read-eval-print loop which was first introduced in the JDK 9. It is tracked by JEP 222 ''jshell: The Java Shell (Read-Eval-Print Loop)''. One reason why JShell was proposed for Java 9 is the lack of a standard interactive environ ...
is a REPL command-line interface for the Java language.
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* , it includes a Java implementation of Reactive Streams, including a new Flow
class that included the interfaces previously provided by Reactive Streams[Reactive Streams Releases First Stable Version for JVM](_blank)
/ref>
*
* , create a tool that can assemble and optimize a set of modules and their dependencies into a custom run-time image. It effectively allows to produce a fully usable executable including the JVM to run it
* , ahead-of-time compilation provided by GraalVM
GraalVM is a Java VM and JDK based on HotSpot/OpenJDK, implemented in Java. It supports additional programming languages and execution modes, like ahead-of-time compilation of Java applications for fast startup and low memory footprint. The f ...
The first Java 9 release candidate was released on August 9, 2017. The first stable release of Java 9 was on September 21, 2017.
History
At JavaOne
__NOTOC__
JavaOne is an annual conference first organized in 1996 by Sun Microsystems to discuss Java technologies, primarily among Java developers. It was held in San Francisco, California, typically running from a Monday to Thursday in summer ...
2011, Oracle discussed features they hoped to release for Java 9 in 2016. Java 9 should include better support for multi-gigabyte heaps, better native code integration, a different default garbage collector ( G1, for "shorter response times") and a self-tuning
In control theory a self-tuning system is capable of optimizing its own internal running parameters in order to maximize or minimize the fulfilment of an objective function; typically the maximization of efficiency or error minimization.
Self-tun ...
JVM. In early 2016, the release of Java 9 was rescheduled for March 2017 and later again postponed four more months to July 2017.
Java 9 updates
Java SE 10
OpenJDK 10 was released on March 20, 2018, with twelve new features confirmed. Among these features were:
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The first of these JEP 286 ''Local-Variable Type Inference'', allows the var
keyword to be used for local variables with the actual type calculated by the compiler. So we can do:
var list = new ArrayList(); // infers ArrayList
var stream = list.stream(); // infers Stream
Java 10 updates
Java SE 11
JDK 11 was released on September 25, 2018 and the version is currently open for bug fixes. It offers LTS, or Long-Term Support
Long-term support (LTS) is a product lifecycle management policy in which a stable release of computer software is maintained for a longer period of time than the standard edition. The term is typically reserved for open-source software, where i ...
. Among others, Java 11 includes a number of new features, such as:
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A number of features from previous releases were dropped; in particular, Java applet
Java applets were small applications written in the Java programming language, or another programming language that compiles to Java bytecode, and delivered to users in the form of Java bytecode. The user launched the Java applet from a ...
s and Java Web Start
In computing, Java Web Start (also known as JavaWS, javaws or JAWS) is a deprecated framework developed by Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) that allows users to start application software for the Java Platform directly from the Internet using a web b ...
are no longer available. JavaFX
JavaFX is a software platform for creating and delivering desktop applications, as well as rich web applications that can run across a wide variety of devices. JavaFX has support for desktop computers and web browsers on Microsoft Windows, Linu ...
, Java EE
Jakarta EE, formerly Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) and Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE), is a set of specifications, extending Java SE with specifications for enterprise features such as distributed computing and web ser ...
and CORBA
The Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is a standard defined by the Object Management Group (OMG) designed to facilitate the communication of systems that are deployed on diverse platforms. CORBA enables collaboration between s ...
modules have been removed from JDK.
Java 11 updates
Java SE 12
JDK 12 was released on March 19, 2019. Among others, Java 12 includes a number of new features, such as:
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The preview feature JEP 325 extends the switch
statement so it can also be used as an expression, and adds a new form of case label where the right hand side is an expression. No break statement is needed. For complex expressions a yield
statement can be used. This becomes standard in Java SE 14.
int ndays = switch(month) ;
Java 12 updates
Java SE 13
JDK 13 was released on September 17, 2019. Java 13 includes the following new features, as well as "hundreds of smaller enhancements and thousands of bug fixes".
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JEP 355 ''Text Blocks'' allows multiline string literals:
String html = """
Hello, world
""";
Java 13 updates
Java SE 14
JDK 14 was released on March 17, 2020. Java 14 includes the following new features, as well as "hundreds of smaller enhancements and thousands of bug fixes".
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JEP 305, ''Pattern Matching for instanceof'' simplifies the common case of an instanceof
test being immediately followed by cast, replacing
if (obj instanceof String)
with
if (obj instanceof String s)
JEP 359 ''Records'' allows easy creation of simple immutable Tuple
In mathematics, a tuple is a finite ordered list (sequence) of elements. An -tuple is a sequence (or ordered list) of elements, where is a non-negative integer. There is only one 0-tuple, referred to as ''the empty tuple''. An -tuple is defi ...
-like classes.
record Point(int x, int y)
Point p = new Point(3,4);
System.out.println( p.x() );
Java 14 updates
Java SE 15
JDK 15 was released on September 15, 2020. Java 15 adds e.g. support for multi-line string literals (aka Text Blocks). The Shenandoah and Z garbage collectors (latter sometimes abbreviated ZGC) are now ready for use in production (i.e. no longer marked experimental). Support for Oracle's Solaris operating system (and SPARC CPUs) is dropped (while still available in e.g. Java 11). The Nashorn JavaScript Engine is removed. Also removed some root CA certificates.
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JEP 360 ''Sealed Classes'' adds sealed classes and interfaces that restrict which other classes or interfaces may extend or implement them. Only those classes specified in a permits
clause may extend the class or interface.
package com.example.geometry;
public abstract sealed class Shape
permits Circle, Rectangle, Square
Together with records, sealed classes are sum type
In computer science, a tagged union, also called a variant, variant record, choice type, discriminated union, disjoint union, sum type or coproduct, is a data structure used to hold a value that could take on several different, but fixed, types. ...
s. They work well with other recent features like records, switch expressions, and pattern matching for instance-of. They all form part of a system for "Pattern matching in Java" first discussed by Gavin Bierman
Gavin is a male given name originating from Scotland. It is a variation on the medieval name Gawain, meaning "God send" or "white hawk" (or falcon). Sir Gawain was a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' is an ep ...
and Brian Goetz
Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world.
It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word mea ...
, in September 2018.
Java 15 updates
Java SE 16
JDK 16 was released on March 16, 2021. Java 16 removes Ahead-of-Time compilation (and Graal JIT) options. The Java implementation itself was and is still written in C++
C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...
, while as of Java 16, more recent C++14
C++14 is a version of the ISO/IEC 14882 standard for the C++ programming language. It is intended to be a small extension over C++11, featuring mainly bug fixes and small improvements, and was replaced by C++17. Its approval was announced on Augus ...
(but still not e.g. C++17 or C++20 C20 or C-20 may refer to:
Science and technology
* Carbon-20 (C-20 or 20C), an isotope of carbon
* C20, the smallest possible fullerene (a carbon molecule)
* C20 (engineering), a mix of concrete that has a compressive strength of 20 newtons per sq ...
) is allowed. The code was also moved to GitHub
GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continu ...
, dropping Mercurial
Mercurial is a distributed revision control tool for software developers. It is supported on Microsoft Windows and Unix-like systems, such as FreeBSD, macOS, and Linux.
Mercurial's major design goals include high performance and scalability, d ...
as the source control system.
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Java 16 updates
Java SE 17
JDK 17 is the current long-term support
Long-term support (LTS) is a product lifecycle management policy in which a stable release of computer software is maintained for a longer period of time than the standard edition. The term is typically reserved for open-source software, where i ...
(LTS) release since September 2021. Java 17 is the 2nd long-term support (LTS) release since switching to the new 6-month release cadence (the first being Java 11).
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JEP 406 extends the pattern matching syntax used in instanceof operations to switch statements and expressions. It allows cases to be selected based on the type of the argument, null cases and refining patterns
Object o = ...;
return switch (o) ;
};
Java 17 updates
Java SE 18
JDK 18 was released on March 22, 2022.
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Java 18 updates
Java SE 19
JDK 19 was released on 20 September 2022.
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Jep 405 allows record patterns, extending the pattern matching capabilities of instanceof operators, and switch expressions, to include record patterns that explicitly refer to the components of the record.
record Rectangle(int x, int y, int w, int h)
int area(Object o)
Such patterns can include nested patterns, where the components of records are themselves records, allowing patterns
to match more object graphs.
Java 19 updates
Java SE 20
, the specification for Java 20 has not yet been finalized. Java 20 is scheduled for release in March 2023.
Java 20 updates
Future features
Project Valhalla
'' Value types'', objects without identity but with an efficient memory layout.
Project Panama
''Improved interoperability with native code'', to enable Java source code to call functions and use data types from other languages, in a way that is easier and has better performance than today. Vector API (a portable and relatively low-level abstraction layer for SIMD
Single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) is a type of parallel processing in Flynn's taxonomy. SIMD can be internal (part of the hardware design) and it can be directly accessible through an instruction set architecture (ISA), but it shoul ...
programming) is also developed under Project Panama umbrella.
Project Loom
''Virtual threads'', a lightweight user-mode scheduled alternative to standard OS managed threads. Virtual threads are mapped to OS threads in a many-to-many relationship, in contrast to the many-to-one relationship from the original green threads
In computer programming, a green thread is a thread that is scheduled by a runtime library or virtual machine (VM) instead of natively by the underlying operating system (OS). Green threads emulate multithreaded environments without relying on an ...
implementation in early versions of Java.
Implementations
The officially supported Java platform
Java is a set of computer software and specifications developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems, which was later acquired by the Oracle Corporation, that provides a system for developing application software and deploying it in a cro ...
, first developed at Sun and now stewarded by Oracle, is Java SE
Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) is a computing platform for development and deployment of portable code for desktop and server environments. Java SE was formerly known as Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE).
The platform uses Ja ...
. Releases are based on the OpenJDK
OpenJDK (Open Java Development Kit) is a free and open-source implementation of the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE). It is the result of an effort Sun Microsystems began in 2006. The implementation is licensed under the GPL-2.0-only w ...
project, a free and open-source project with an open development model. Other Java implementations exist, however—in part due to Java's early history as proprietary software
Proprietary software is software that is deemed within the free and open-source software to be non-free because its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner exercises a legal monopoly afforded by modern copyright and i ...
. In contrast, some implementations were created to offer some benefits over the standard implementation, often the result of some area of academic or corporate-sponsored research. Many Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
distributions include builds of OpenJDK through the IcedTea project started by Red Hat, which provides a more straightforward build and integration environment.
Visual J++
Visual J++ is Microsoft's discontinued implementation of Java. Syntax, keywords, and grammatical conventions were the same as Java's. It was introduced in 1996 and discontinued in January 2004, replaced to a certain extent by J# and C#.
The i ...
and the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine were created as incompatible implementations. After the ''Sun v. Microsoft'' lawsuit, Microsoft abandoned it and began work on the .NET platform. In 2021, Microsoft started distributing compatible "Microsoft Build of OpenJDK" for Java 11 first then also for Java 17. Their builds support not only Windows, but also Linux and macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
.
Other proprietary Java implementations are available, such as Azul
Azul, meaning "blue" in Spanish and Portuguese, may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Azul'' (Los Piojos album), 1998
* ''Azul'' (Cristian Castro album), 2001
* Azul Azul, a Bolivian pop-dance music group
** "Azul" (song), the title song
* " ...
's Zing. Azul offers certified open source OpenJDK builds under the Zulu moniker.
Prior to the release of OpenJDK, while Sun's implementation was still proprietary, the GNU Classpath
GNU Classpath is a free software implementation of the standard class library for the Java programming language. Most classes from J2SE 1.4 and 5.0 are implemented. Classpath can thus be used to run Java-based applications. GNU Classpath is a p ...
project was created to provide a free and open-source implementation of the Java platform. Since the release of JDK 7, when OpenJDK became the official reference implementation, the original motivation for the GNU Classpath project almost completely disappeared, and its last release was in 2012.
The Apache Harmony project was started shortly before the release of OpenJDK. After Sun's initial source code release, the Harmony project continued, working to provide an implementation under a lax license, in contrast to the protective license chosen for OpenJDK. Google later developed Android and released it under a lax license. Android incorporated parts of the Harmony project, supplemented with Google's own Dalvik virtual machine
Dalvik is a discontinued process virtual machine (VM) in the Android operating system that executes applications written for Android. (Dalvik bytecode format is still used as a distribution format, but no longer at runtime in newer Android version ...
and ART
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
. Apache Harmony has since been retired, and Google has switched its Harmony components with equivalent ones from OpenJDK.
Both Jikes
Jikes is an open-source Java compiler written in C++. It is no longer being updated.
The original version was developed by David L. "Dave" Shields and Philippe Charles at IBM but was quickly transformed into an open-source project contributed ...
and Jikes RVM
Jikes is an open-source Java compiler written in C++. It is no longer being updated.
The original version was developed by David L. "Dave" Shields and Philippe Charles at IBM but was quickly transformed into an open-source project contribute ...
are open-source research projects that IBM developed.
Several other implementations exist that started as proprietary software but are now open source. IBM initially developed OpenJ9
Eclipse OpenJ9 (previously known as IBM J9) is a high performance, scalable, Java virtual machine (JVM) implementation that is fully compliant with the Java Virtual Machine Specification.
OpenJ9 can be built from source, or can be used with pre ...
as the proprietary J9 but has since relicensed the project and donated it to the Eclipse Foundation
The Eclipse Foundation AISBL is an independent, Europe-based not-for-profit corporation that acts as a steward of the Eclipse open source software development community, with legal jurisdiction in the European Union. It is an organization suppo ...
. JRockit
JRockit was a proprietary Java virtual machine (JVM) originally developed by Appeal Virtual Machines, acquired by BEA Systems in 2002, and became part of Oracle Fusion Middleware as part of acquisition of BEA Systems in 2008.
The JRockit code ba ...
is a proprietary implementation that was acquired by Oracle and incorporated into subsequent OpenJDK versions.
References
Updates
External links
Official Java SE Downloads
Downloads archive for older version of Java
JDK Releases
{{Java (software platform)
History of software
Java platform
Software version histories