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Java 27

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Re: Java 27

#101

Post by pron »

astrodust wrote: post #99
pron wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These days, Java is mostly used in greenfield software that has to be very reliable, very performant, and last for many years. So it's often the first choice for banking, telecom, finance, government, defence, manufacturing control, logistics and shipping, media streaming, retail, hospitality, healthcare etc.. It's usually not a first pick for more exciting software, such as Python type checkers, JS bundlers, or TUI…

Why not Go, Rust, or C#?

They lack in performance, stability (compatibility), observability (telemetry), productivity, or some combination thereof. They are chosen, of course (especially C#; Go and Rust are far behind), but not as much as Java.

Re: Java 27

#102

Post by ndriscoll »

voidfunc wrote: post #62
msluyter wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't really been in the java space for a while now, but I recall there being a fair bit of criticism[1][2] of checked exceptions over the years. [1] https://www.javacodegeeks.com/2026/01/javas-checked-exceptio... [2] https://reflectoring.io/do-not-use-checked-exceptions/ WRT magic, I've generally thought that was a result of frameworks - Spring, for example. In the past, my feeling was that these impose a sort o…

Checked exceptions are controversial mostly because a lot of the core APIs use them in places where it's pointless to check, like IOException. Using them correctly can be great tho.

Scala's ZIO also demonstrates that they're a great idea and can be perfectly ergonomic, but you need type inference, which Java devs were resistant to for a long time (maybe still are? I remember lots of "how will I ever know what `val a = new Animal()` is???"). If you infer the exception type, they're basically invisible except for when you forget to have some place in your program to handle them, which is exactly what you want.

Re: Java 27

#103

Post by fourseventy »

kittoes wrote: post #89
hirvi74 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kind of wish C# would slowdown releases in some areas. I have not been a huge fan of some of the changes in the past year. I love the performance changes and bits of functionality here and there, but the syntax-sugar is getting annoying.

Interesting take, how is optional functionality annoying? Isn't the fact that it's just sugar a huge benefit? Us old timers can simply stick to what we're familiar with.

Because unless you are the only person maintaining your codebase other people in your organization will start using the cool new syntax sugar and optional functionality. So you will be forced to deal with it as it starts showing up in your codebase.

Re: Java 27

#104

Post by Almondsetat »

astrodust wrote: post #99
pron wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These days, Java is mostly used in greenfield software that has to be very reliable, very performant, and last for many years. So it's often the first choice for banking, telecom, finance, government, defence, manufacturing control, logistics and shipping, media streaming, retail, hospitality, healthcare etc.. It's usually not a first pick for more exciting software, such as Python type checkers, JS bundlers, or TUI…

Why not Go, Rust, or C#?

Go and Rust have much worse tooling for enterprise-level collaboration

Re: Java 27

#106

Post by hirvi74 »

skeletal88 wrote: post #48
Horffupolde wrote: post #15

Serious question: when should one use Java for greenfield projects in 2026?

Same question for .net or C# Why should anyone use it over Java? Ms is hostile towards its developers, it creates new versions of things, deprecates previous versions, uses confusing naming for newer versions.. etc.

Because your employer is dick-deep in Microsoft psychosis.

I've been a .NET dev for a decade now. It's perfectly serviceable, but I wouldn't say I truly love the language anymore, but I would take it over Java any day. Entity Framework and LINQ are gifts from the Gods. I have never used an ORM that even comes remotely close.

Also, C# is big in the gaming world. I am working on a game right now, and I was not impressed with what many other languages had to offer. It seems like the kings are still C(++) and C#. Of course, Java can create games, but I would argue that is a "could vs. should" kind of decision.

Unity, Godot, Monogame, Raylib, XNA, FNA, etc. all can use or rely on C#. I have not seen Java be compatible with any of those -- except maybe Raylib? I do not know of anyone nor any games that use it though.

Re: Java 27

#108

Post by hyperpape »

kllrnohj wrote: post #47
hyperpape wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re only counting JEPs, which are only for more involved features. There are lots of changes to the JDK apis that are used by other runtimes. See, for instance: https://javaalmanac.io/jdk/27/apidiff/26/ . Admittedly, the terminology here is almost designed to be maximally confusing, and I’ve never read a good post that laid out how everything relates.

Fair, although even there I don't know if I'd call that "lots" at just 23 added or modified methods that aren't in preview

There are also bug-fixes and performance improvements that are not going to show on the page I linked.

I do think it’s plausible this is a smaller release. Not that this was the real point of the discussion, but I think it’s still just a good idea to have more than one release a year. It keeps things moving smoothly, and lowers the cost of missing a release, which has beneficial effects.

Re: Java 27

#109

Post by throwaway91033 »

pron wrote: post #94
Horffupolde wrote: post #15

Serious question: when should one use Java for greenfield projects in 2026?

These days, Java is mostly used in greenfield software that has to be very reliable, very performant, and last for many years. So it's often the first choice for banking, telecom, finance, government, defence, manufacturing control, logistics and shipping, media streaming, retail, hospitality, healthcare etc.. It's usually not a first pick for more exciting software, such as Python type checkers, JS bundlers, or TUI…

I think of Java/Kotlin and Spring as a secret weapon for startups. My workplace was a startup 5 years ago and it's amazing how things just worked as expected, leaving us more time to focus on the product. We have tried a few alternatives over the years, such as a few services in Rust, but the people who implemented those have usually seen the advantage of using a stable ecosystem after a few years. It's unfortunately something you need to experience yourself instead of being told by someone else.

Re: Java 27

#110

Post by cavoirom »

BoppreH wrote: post #44
t0mas88 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When building boring web applications with a sizeable team that need to run for a long time. Hiring developers is easy since there are many, there is nearly no magic and the language is quite strict and type safe so it works well with a large team. And that "team" nowadays may also consist of many AI agents. In my experience Claude Code for example works very well with a typed, slightly boring language with lots of f…

> there is nearly no magic I agree with the rest, but there's definitely a lot of magic in Java. This is from both what features the languages makes available (many) and how the community uses them (often). I've had so many hard-to-debug issues in Java over the years due to reflection, annotations, and bytecode manipulation shenanigans. And another positive point for Java: checked exceptions. It's verbose, but knowin…

I agree, to name a few:

- Annotation processing: if you know Lombok, MapStruct.

- Class loader.

- Reflection.

- Garbage collection.

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