The
Java language has undergone several changes since
JDK 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 vi ...
. Since J2SE 1.4, the evolution of the Java language has been governed by the
Java Community Process (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 Library (computer science)#Dynamic linking, dynamically loadable libraries that List of JVM languages, Java Virtual Machine (JVM) languages can call at Run time (program lifecycle phase), run time. Because ...
over the years, which has grown from a few hundred classes in JDK 1.0 to over three thousand in J2SE 5. Entire new
APIs, such as
Swing
Swing or swinging may refer to:
Apparatus
* Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth
* Pendulum, an object that swings
* Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus
* Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse
* Swing rid ...
and
Java2D, 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is the discouragement of use of some terminology, feature, design, or practice, typically because it has been superseded or is no longer considered efficient or safe, without completely removing ...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).
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 (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, ...
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 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 classes added to the language
* JavaBeans
In computing based on the Java Platform, JavaBeans is a technology developed by Sun Microsystems and released in 1996, as part of JDK 1.1.
The 'beans' of JavaBeans are classes that encapsulate one or more objects into a single standardized obj ...
* JDBC
* RMI
RMI may refer to:
Science and technology
* Radio-magnetic indicator, an instrument used in aircraft navigation
* Repetitive motion injury, an injury to the musculoskeletal and nervous systems
* Richtmyer–Meshkov instability, an instability occu ...
and serialization
In computing, serialization (or serialisation) is the process of translating a data structure or object state into a format that can be stored (e.g. files in secondary storage devices, data buffers in primary storage devices) or transmitted (e ...
* reflection 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, ...
support originating from Taligent
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
keyword (by JVM 17 an obsolete keyword, shouldn't be used in new code)
* the Swing
Swing or swinging may refer to:
Apparatus
* Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth
* Pendulum, an object that swings
* Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus
* Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse
* Swing rid ...
graphical API was integrated into the core classes
* Sun's JVM was equipped with a JIT compiler for the first time
* Java plug-in
* Java IDL, an IDL
IDL may refer to:
Computing
* Interface description language, any computer language used to describe a software component's interface
** IDL specification language, the original IDL created by Lamb, Wulf and Nestor at Queen's University, Canada
...
implementation for CORBA interoperability
* Collections framework
J2SE 1.3
The most notable changes in the May 8, 2000 release were:[Version 1.3 press release](_blank)
Sun.
* HotSpot
Hotspot, Hot Spot or Hot spot may refer to:
Places
* Hot Spot, Kentucky, a community in the United States
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities
* Hot Spot (comics), a name for the DC Comics character Isaiah Crockett
* Hot Spot (Tra ...
JVM included (the HotSpot JVM was first released in April 1999 for the J2SE 1.2 JVM)
* RMI
RMI may refer to:
Science and technology
* Radio-magnetic indicator, an instrument used in aircraft navigation
* Repetitive motion injury, an injury to the musculoskeletal and nervous systems
* Richtmyer–Meshkov instability, an instability occu ...
was modified to support optional compatibility with CORBA
* Java Naming and Directory Interface (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 manufactu ...
.
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 lan ...
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 programming language, high-level, General-purpose programming language, general-purpose, Interpreter (computing), interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it ...
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. I ...
) support
** Non-blocking I/O (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
JPEG ( ) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and im ...
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
XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) is a language originally designed for transforming XML documents into other XML documents, or other formats such as HTML for web pages, plain text or XSL Formatting Objects, which may subse ...
processor ( JAXP) (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 ...
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
Generic or generics may refer to:
In business
* Generic term, a common name used for a range or class of similar things not protected by trademark
* Generic brand, a brand for a product that does not have an associated brand or trademark, other ...
: provides compile-time (static) type safety 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
In computer science, boxing (a.k.a. wrapping) is the transformation of placing a primitive type within an object so that the value can be used as a reference. Unboxing is the reverse transformation of extracting the primitive value from its wr ...
/unboxing: automatic conversions between primitive types (such as int
) and primitive wrapper classes (such as ) (specified b
JSR 201
* Enumerations: 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: 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 imports
There were also the following improvements to the standard libraries:
* Automatic stub generation for RMI
RMI may refer to:
Science and technology
* Radio-magnetic indicator, an instrument used in aircraft navigation
* Repetitive motion injury, an injury to the musculoskeletal and nervous systems
* Richtmyer–Meshkov instability, an instability occu ...
objects
* Swing
Swing or swinging may refer to:
Apparatus
* Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth
* Pendulum, an object that swings
* Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus
* Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse
* Swing rid ...
: 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, box ...
, 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 an ...
* 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 ...
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 Win ...
, 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 manufactu ...
(with Internet Explorer 5.5
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 (IE5) is a graphical web browser, the fifth version of Internet Explorer, the successor to Internet Explorer 4 and one of the main participants of the first Browser wars, browser war. Its distribution methods and Wi ...
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): 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 Website, websites use JavaScript on the Client (computing), client side ...
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 ...
integration.
* Dramatic performance improvements for the core platform,[Java Lobby](_blank)
. and Swing
Swing or swinging may refer to:
Apparatus
* Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth
* Pendulum, an object that swings
* Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus
* Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse
* Swing rid ...
.
* Improved Web Service support through JAX-WS ( JSR 224).
* JDBC 4.0 support ( JSR 221).
* Java Compiler API ( JSR 199): an API allowing a Java program to select and invoke a Java Compiler programmatically.
* Upgrade of JAXB to version 2.0: Including integration of a StAX parser.
* Support for pluggable annotations ( JSR 269).
* Many GUI improvements, such as integration of SwingWorker
SwingWorker is a popular utility class developed by Sun Microsystems for the Swing library of the Java programming language. SwingWorker enables proper use of the event dispatching thread. As of Java 6, SwingWorker is included in the JRE.
Se ...
in the API, table sorting and filtering, and true Swing double-buffering (eliminating the gray-area effect).
* JVM 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 that ...
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 lapt ...
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 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 ...
:* 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 linguistics. ...
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 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 algorithms
* An XRender pipeline for Java 2D, which improves handling of features specific to modern GPUs
* 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
* Upstream
Upstream may refer to:
* Upstream (bioprocess)
* ''Upstream'' (film), a 1927 film by John Ford
* Upstream (networking)
* ''Upstream'' (newspaper), a newspaper covering the oil and gas industry
* Upstream (petroleum industry)
* Upstream (software ...
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, ...
* Java deployment rule sets
Lambda (Java's implementation of lambda functions), Jigsaw (Java's implementation of modules), 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 (officially, lambda expressions; unofficially, closures) under Project Lambda and default methods (virtual extension methods) 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-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 release to manufacturing, released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Wind ...
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 ...
)
* JavaDB 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 is a REPL command-line interface for the Java language.
*
*
* , 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
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 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 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:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
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. Among others, Java 11 includes a number of new features, such as:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
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 ...
are no longer available. JavaFX, Java EE and CORBA 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:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
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".
*
*
*
*
*
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".
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
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 certificate
In cryptography, a certificate authority or certification authority (CA) is an entity that stores, signs, and issues digital certificates. A digital certificate certifies the ownership of a public key by the named subject of the certificate. This ...
s.
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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 types. 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 and Brian Goetz, 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++, while as of Java 16, more recent C++14 (but still not e.g. C++17 or C++20) 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, co ...
, dropping Mercurial as the source control
In software engineering, version control (also known as revision control, source control, or source code management) is a class of systems responsible for managing changes to computer programs, documents, large web sites, or other collections o ...
system.
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Java 16 updates
Java SE 17
JDK 17 is the current long-term support (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 should ...
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 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. Releases are based on the OpenJDK project, a free and open-source
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the 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 computer software, 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 ...
. 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, which i ...
distributions include builds of OpenJDK through the IcedTea project started by Red Hat, which provides a more straightforward build
Build may refer to:
* Engineering something
* Construction
* Physical body stature, especially muscle size; usually of the human body
* Build (game engine), a 1995 first-person shooter engine
* "Build" (song), a 1987 song by The Housemartins
* ...
and integration
Integration may refer to:
Biology
* Multisensory integration
* Path integration
* Pre-integration complex, viral genetic material used to insert a viral genome into a host genome
*DNA integration, by means of site-specific recombinase technolo ...
environment.
Visual J++ and the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine
The Microsoft Java Virtual Machine (MSJVM) is a discontinued proprietary Java virtual machine from Microsoft. It was first made available for Internet Explorer 3 so that users could run Java applets when browsing on the World Wide Web. It was the ...
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 (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
.
Other proprietary Java implementations are available, such as Azul'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 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
Apache Harmony is a retired Open-source software, open source, free Java implementations, free Java implementation, developed by the Apache Software Foundation. It was announced in early May 2005 and on October 25, 2006, the Board of Directors ...
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
Android may refer to:
Science and technology
* Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system
** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
and released it under a lax license. Android incorporated parts of the Harmony project, supplemented with Google's own Dalvik virtual machine and ART. Apache Harmony has since been retired, and Google has switched its Harmony components with equivalent ones from OpenJDK.
Both Jikes and Jikes RVM 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 preb ...
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 supp ...
. JRockit 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