Java 18 / JDK 18: General Availability

#1

Post by todsacerdoti » Tue, Mar 22, 2022, 2:41 PM UTC

Java 18 / JDK 18: General Availability
mail.openjdk.java.net

Re: Java 18 / JDK 18: General Availability

#2

Post by halestock » Tue, Mar 22, 2022, 3:09 PM UTC

Here's the openjdk page which includes links to details of all new features: https://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk/18/

Re: Java 18 / JDK 18: General Availability

#3

Post by throw0101a » Tue, Mar 22, 2022, 3:11 PM UTC

Somewhat related is "Oracle Java SE Support Roadmap" (LTS / non-LTS):

* https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/java-se-support-roa...

Re: Java 18 / JDK 18: General Availability

#4

Post by tyingq » Tue, Mar 22, 2022, 3:12 PM UTC

halestock wrote: post #2

Here's the openjdk page which includes links to details of all new features: https://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk/18/

This one looks interesting: "JEP 400: UTF-8 by Default": https://openjdk.java.net/jeps/400

It sounds like a good idea, but I can imagine lots of downstream breakage, some of it not immediately obvious, with apps that make bad assumptions.

Edit: The risks section of the linked doc above does explain some of that, and there is some notable risk.

Re: Java 18 / JDK 18: General Availability

#5

Post by kaycebasques » Tue, Mar 22, 2022, 3:12 PM UTC

This is tangential and possibly too open ended to be productive but worth a shot anyway. Why is Java so popular? I know of a major Silicon Valley company that's migrating their backend to it. Why Java over other languages? Or maybe there's not really other viable options?

I'm speaking as someone who spent the last 6 years focused on frontend web technology.

Re: Java 18 / JDK 18: General Availability

#6

Post by hu3 » Tue, Mar 22, 2022, 3:15 PM UTC

Is there a reason to use Oracle's closed-source Java implementation instead of the opensource implementations? Asking as someone who's ignorant about Java.

edit: per comments below, Oracle's Java is open-source too these days.

Re: Java 18 / JDK 18: General Availability

#7

Post by badhombres » Tue, Mar 22, 2022, 3:16 PM UTC

kaycebasques wrote: post #5

This is tangential and possibly too open ended to be productive but worth a shot anyway. Why is Java so popular? I know of a major Silicon Valley company that's migrating their backend to it. Why Java over other languages? Or maybe there's not really other viable options? I'm speaking as someone who spent the last 6 years focused on frontend web technology.

It's a stable and well proven technology that still has a lot of developer activity. Businesses are trying to make money, not explore technology, so a lot of them don't want to bother risking deliverables on something they may not have experience with.

IMO

Re: Java 18 / JDK 18: General Availability

#8

Post by jraph » Tue, Mar 22, 2022, 3:16 PM UTC

kaycebasques wrote: post #5

This is tangential and possibly too open ended to be productive but worth a shot anyway. Why is Java so popular? I know of a major Silicon Valley company that's migrating their backend to it. Why Java over other languages? Or maybe there's not really other viable options? I'm speaking as someone who spent the last 6 years focused on frontend web technology.

I'll try: Java is a proven, boring and "easy" language without much surprise, with a big standard library and ecosystem.

Re: Java 18 / JDK 18: General Availability

#9

Post by cies » Tue, Mar 22, 2022, 3:16 PM UTC

kaycebasques wrote: post #5

This is tangential and possibly too open ended to be productive but worth a shot anyway. Why is Java so popular? I know of a major Silicon Valley company that's migrating their backend to it. Why Java over other languages? Or maybe there's not really other viable options? I'm speaking as someone who spent the last 6 years focused on frontend web technology.

Tooling is quite good with IntelliJ and Gradle, Kotlin is neat. It's pretty fast, allows for high level'ish programming and is verrrry widely used (many like to claim this helps for finding devs, seen by many others as the super scarcest thing producing software, but i beg to differ).

Re: Java 18 / JDK 18: General Availability

#10

Post by vorpalhex » Tue, Mar 22, 2022, 3:16 PM UTC

kaycebasques wrote: post #5

This is tangential and possibly too open ended to be productive but worth a shot anyway. Why is Java so popular? I know of a major Silicon Valley company that's migrating their backend to it. Why Java over other languages? Or maybe there's not really other viable options? I'm speaking as someone who spent the last 6 years focused on frontend web technology.

With Java comes the whole JVM which is equal parts blessing and curse. You no longer need to know a bunch of OS details, but you pay in overhead.

From a business standpoint, there are lots and lots of Java programmers out there. Of course that doesn't reflect anything about the average skill of those programmers..