Java After Eight

Nicolai Parlog

codefx.org / @nipafx

AllTheTalks

@allthetalksconf

Lots to talk about

The plan for today:

  • start with a Java 8 code base

  • take it all the way to Java 14

  • be amazed by how much changes

This talk is:

  • a showcase, not a tutorial

  • not a complete list

Java 8

  • released 03/2014

  • free support by Oracle ended 01/2019

  • free support by Red Hat until 06/2023

  • more free and commercial support available

It’s a great release…​

  • solid feature set

  • good performance

  • very stable

  • occasional backports

  • great support

…​but it’s getting dated

Java 8 misses out on most recent developments:

  • many new language features

  • many new and improved APIs

  • many new JVM features

  • improved performance
    (in certain cases)

Time to upgrade

Let me show you how much
you’re missing out on
if you’re still on Java 8.

Code

Code, code, code, code

(code base)

Java 9

  • released 09/2017

  • support ended 01/2018

What we’ve seen

  • module system | module-info.java

  • collection factories | List::of

  • new process API | ProcessHandle::pid

  • new version API | Version::major

  • improved streams | Stream::dropWhile

  • improved Optional | Optional::or

What we haven’t seen

  • try with effectively final resource

  • private interface methods

  • stack walking API (improves logging perf)

  • unified logging

  • multi-release JARs

  • app/runtime images | jlink

Java 10

  • released 03/2018

  • support ended 07/2018

What we’ve seen

  • local-variable type inference | var tags

  • more collection factories | Map::copyOf

  • more collectors | Collectors::toUnmodifiableList

What we haven’t seen

  • application class-data sharing

Java 11

  • released 09/2018

  • free support by Oracle ended 01/2019

  • free support by Red Hat until 10/2024

  • commercial support available

What we’ve seen

  • improved whitespace handling | String::strip

  • uniform array creation | toArray(String[]::new)

  • better Path creation | Path::of

  • better Predicate negation | Predicate::not

What we haven’t seen

  • reactive HTTP/2 API | ↴

    HttpRequest request = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
    .GET()
    .uri(URI.create("http://codefx.org"))
    .header("Accept-Language", "en-US,en;q=0.5")
    .build();

  • more String improvements | String::lines

  • easier IO | Files::readString

  • improved Optional | Optional::isEmpty

  • Java scripts | java SourceFile.java

Java 12

  • release 03/2019

  • support ended 07/2019

What we’ve seen

  • more powerful collections | Collectors::teeing

  • better async error handling | ↴
    CompletableFuture::exceptionallyCompose

What we haven’t seen

  • switch expressions | ↴

    boolean bool = switch (ternaryBool) {
	case TRUE -> true;
	case FALSE -> false;
	case FILE_NOT_FOUND -> throw
			new FileNotFoundException("🤬");
};

  • transforming Strings | ↴
    String.transform(Function<String, R>)

  • social media number format | ↴
    NumberFormat::getCompactNumberInstance

  • easy file comparison | Files::mismatch

  • included JDK CDS archive

Java 13

  • released 09/2019

  • free support ended 01/2020

  • commercial support available by Azul

What we’ve seen

  • text blocks | ↴

    var recommendation = """
		{
			"title": '$TITLE',
			"recommendations": $RECS
		}
	""";

  • obvious String formattting | String::format

What we haven’t seen

  • automatic application CDS archive

Java 14

  • release 03/2020

  • support ends 07/2020

What we’ve seen

  • records | record Title(String text)

  • pattern matching | o instanceof Article a

  • helpful NPE messages

What we haven’t seen

  • standardized foreign-memory access

  • JFR event streaming

  • OS-specific installers | jpackage

Java 8 to 14

  • stronger encapsulation and better services | modules

  • safer code | processes, versions, whitespace, etc.

  • more expressive code | LOC: 1654 📉 1242

  • faster code | run time: ~1s 📉 ~ 0.8 ms

  • better JVM | MR-JARs, GCs, packaging, monitoring, etc.

Sure you don’t want to upgrade?

About Nicolai Parlog

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code fccparlog

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Slides at slides.codefx.org

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You can hire me:

  • training (Java 8-14, JUnit 5)

  • consulting (Java 8-14)

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