I have done much Java since I moved to full time Python/Node/Go. Guess I should give a try now. The Helpful NullPointerException is certainly a exciting feature.
Wow, I'm still using JDK 1.8. I thought I was way behind until I looked up the release schedule: apparently they're pushing out two (major) releases a year now.
They're not major releases; in fact, the last major Java release ever was 9.
The way releases used to work for the past ten years or so was that after a major release, every couple of months there would be a bugfix/security patch, and every six months (for a year or more) there would be a feature release (that used to be called "limited update") with major new features (new GCs, new monitoring mechanisms etc.) but without spec changes to the language and libraries. This meant that all the changes that required changing the spec had to wait for the major release. This had several bad implications. Most if not all of the spec changes were no more disruptive than the changes in the feature releases, but they had to wait for the next major release -- a lot of changes delivered at once created an overall fairly large disruption. Also the major release had to wait for the large features, and people couldn't enjoy smaller ones. Finally, people wanted to get their changes into the next major release so they wouldn't have to wait another three years or more, so features were merged before they were fully tested, which meant that the .0 major release was noticeably less stable.
So, to make the upgrade process easier and cheaper, Java got rid of the major releases, allowed making spec changes in the feature releases, and, with the major releases gone, every feature release gets a new integer name. The result is a much more gradual process. Every feature release is about as big and only slightly more disruptive than the old feature releases. The releases are now much more stable because features are merged only when they're mature enough; there's no rush because if you miss a release, there's another in six months.
The ecosystem will take some years to adjust, but those who've made the transition to running in production on the current release (many still can't, as some tools haven't yet adjusted) report a smooth process.
Yep, the new rapid-release schedule. Java 8 (grandfathered) and 11 are the current LTS branches, both of which cease getting any kind of support (read: security fixes) in 2024. Java 17 will be the next LTS.
Java 7, 8, and 11 are the Long Term Release (LTS) versions, that are getting patched every 90 days. Support to 2025'ish for them. With 9+, all the other versions get a 6 month life span, with new features in each and heavy deprecation/dropping of older bits with each short term cut. 9+ is fairly backward compatible with each other. 8 to 9 required a bit of finesse for things like JAXB and other things dropped from the 'core' into external libraries.
At least our shop made it to JDK 11. Next LTS version is 17, which is a while out.
Well, Java 8 was released 6 years ago and is basically EOL now.
We migrated to Java 11 during the fall and finally most third party libraries we use seems to work fully in Java 11.
When are the Alpine builds getting GA status? The last release of Java to include a build for Alpine was Java 8. Ever since then the Alpine builds have been restricted to early access releases. In the meantime Microsoft has started providing officially supported Alpine builds for .NET Core.
Great news, although I know it's gonna be a while before it's a smooth transition to this version - definitely going to push for atleast one of our systems. Some features we needed in this one. e.g. helpful NPE messages
koozz|6 years ago
whateveracct|6 years ago
pour one out for the legend
120bits|6 years ago
commandlinefan|6 years ago
pron|6 years ago
The way releases used to work for the past ten years or so was that after a major release, every couple of months there would be a bugfix/security patch, and every six months (for a year or more) there would be a feature release (that used to be called "limited update") with major new features (new GCs, new monitoring mechanisms etc.) but without spec changes to the language and libraries. This meant that all the changes that required changing the spec had to wait for the major release. This had several bad implications. Most if not all of the spec changes were no more disruptive than the changes in the feature releases, but they had to wait for the next major release -- a lot of changes delivered at once created an overall fairly large disruption. Also the major release had to wait for the large features, and people couldn't enjoy smaller ones. Finally, people wanted to get their changes into the next major release so they wouldn't have to wait another three years or more, so features were merged before they were fully tested, which meant that the .0 major release was noticeably less stable.
So, to make the upgrade process easier and cheaper, Java got rid of the major releases, allowed making spec changes in the feature releases, and, with the major releases gone, every feature release gets a new integer name. The result is a much more gradual process. Every feature release is about as big and only slightly more disruptive than the old feature releases. The releases are now much more stable because features are merged only when they're mature enough; there's no rush because if you miss a release, there's another in six months.
The ecosystem will take some years to adjust, but those who've made the transition to running in production on the current release (many still can't, as some tools haven't yet adjusted) report a smooth process.
chungy|6 years ago
DannyB2|6 years ago
After that there was no effort to upgrade to all subsequent versions, to this point.
heelix|6 years ago
At least our shop made it to JDK 11. Next LTS version is 17, which is a while out.
TravelPiglet|6 years ago
pjmlp|6 years ago
https://developer.android.com/studio/preview/features?hl=ru#...
p2detar|6 years ago
We’re bundling an OpenJDK 11 with our product and while I’ll definitely play around with v14, I think we’ll only upgrade once v17 LTS is out.
animalnewbie|6 years ago
tofflos|6 years ago
_old_dude_|6 years ago
zikani_03|6 years ago
unknown|6 years ago
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