Java 7 Predictions
So, we're a few weeks into the new year and it's time for my predictions about what will make it into Java 7. My best guess is that a Java 7 SE JSR will be created in the next couple months to have it ready before JavaOne.
The list you'll find below summarizes the majority of Java 7 features that have been talked about at one point or another and gives my own personal best guess as to the likelihood of inclusion. Note that a) these are my own personal guesses and do not reflect the actual activity of anyone involved in the JCP and b) these don't necessary reflect my own personal desires, just what I think is most likely.
| Feature | Chance | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| JSR 294 Superpackages | Yes - 90% | OSGi controvery aside, I think 294 and 277 will exist in some form |
| JSR 277 Java Modules | Yes - 90% | ditto above |
| JSR 203 NIO 2 | Yes - 95% | Work is mostly done, adds many important improvements |
| JSR 275 Units and Quantities | Yes - 70% | Progress is far along but there have been some questions on whether this should be in the JDK |
| JSR 310 Date and Time | Yes - 90% | There's a strong desire for this and progress has been excellent |
| JSR 107 Cache API | No - 5% | Despite occasional blips on the radar, I don't see 107 making a comeback in time for Java 7 |
| JSR 166 Concurrency Utils | Yes - 95% | Mostly some evolutionary additions plus the new fork/join library |
| JSR 225 XQuery API for Java | Yes - 90% | Pretty far advanced |
| JSR 284 Resource Consumption Management | Maybe - 60% | Hard to judge this one - there is a proposed final spec and seemingly interested support from major players, but not too much info out there. |
| JSR 296 Swing App Framework | Yes - 95% | Seems far along and well-liked |
| JSR 295 Beans Binding | Yes - 90% | Lots of progress |
| JSR 303 Beans Validation | Yes - 70% | I get the impression this is a key piece with the other Swing items, but there is far less info out there. I'm assuming it will solidify. |
| Java Media Components | Yes - 80% | Seems like Sun is strongly interested in filling this gap to compete against Flash, Silverlight |
| JSR 255 JMX 2.0 | Yes - 95% | Far along, many useful improvements |
| JSR 262 Web Services Connector for JMX | Yes - 95% | Available now |
| JSR 260 Javadoc Update | No - 10% | This has been strung along for several releases now - I see no hope or interest that anyone will pick it up for Java 7 |
| Reified Generics | No - 20% | Seems like a long shot to me. Could be an upset for me, but my gut says no. |
| Type Literals | Maybe - 60% | I think some useful class or reflective helper will be added as a small stopgap to no reified generics. |
| JSR 308 Type Annotations | Yes - 80% | Prototype available now |
| Type Inference | Yes - 80% | I think some type inference additions will be added, particularly those that allow the generic types on LHS to be inferred. |
| Closures | Yes - 70% | I think there is enough interest in this that something will be added. I don't think it will be BGGA as it currently stands, but rather something that evolves from that as a starting point. Syntax is likely to change. I'd say the control abstraction aspects are less likely to be included. |
| ARM Blocks | No - 20% | Generally, I'd say no, unless they end up getting included instead of closure control abstraction. |
| XML Support | No - 0% | Not a chance |
| Property support | Maybe - 40% | I'd say this isn't dead but that there is indifference from a large segment of the user base and splintered support from the rest. I don't see the big players pushing any particular solution to this. I've said Maybe but only as a long shot. |
| BigDecimal operator support | Yes - 90% | Seems like a duh to me |
| Strings in switch | Yes - 90% | Easy and useful |
| Comparisons for Enum | Yes - 80% | Bit more of a stretch but still really useful |
| Chained invocations | Maybe - 50% | Too early to say on this one. |
| Extension methods | Maybe - 50% | Also too early to say - I think this one depends a lot on where closures goes and how badly this is needed to retrofit collections with wherever we end with for closures. |
| Improved catch | Yes - 80% | Seems to have a lot of support |
| JSR 292 invokedynamic | Yes - 90% | I think JSR 292 will produce some JVM changes in Java 7, probably most likely an invokedynamic. But John Rose has taken JSR 292 to a broader place and is really using it as an umbrella for many potential dynamic language optimizations like tail call optimization, tuple support, and more in the JVM. Unlikely that any of this will leak out to Java 7 the language though. |
| Tiered compilation | Yes - 70% | Work on this seems active enough that there will be some updates in this area, although it's difficult to tell exactly what that will mean. |
So there you go - those are my predictions. We'll see how I do in the coming year. If you're interested in watching the Java 7 space, check out my Java 7 link blog (RSS).
(Note: Opinions expressed in this article and its replies are the opinions of their respective authors and not those of DZone, Inc.)
Comments
Neal Gafter replied on Tue, 2008/01/22 - 12:53pm
Mark Mahieu replied on Tue, 2008/01/22 - 4:56pm
It certainly feels like ARM blocks need a number of details thrashed out before they can be considered a real contender. See here for some thoughts on the matter (and an attempt at a prototype).
As for reification - whatever happened to the EGO approach here ? Didn't one of the authors join Sun's compiler team recently?
Andres Almiray replied on Tue, 2008/01/22 - 6:37pm
Alex Miller replied on Tue, 2008/01/22 - 8:48pm
@ng100699 (presumably Neal Gafter) - thanks for the update. I'll assume by the lack of any other corrections, that the rest is all correct. :)
@mm49838 - yep, I think ARM will get a little more fleshed out, and who knows, it may have legs regardless of which way closures go. There have been some ideas sketched out for reification and even for reconciling the collections library to work with both but to my eye it's not pretty. I'm guessing it's too much, especially on top of closures and everything else.
@aalmiray - yep, I've been doing some Groovy recently and I'm finding it very useful in thinking about what Java would be like with some of these features.
Jeroen Wenting replied on Fri, 2008/01/25 - 1:33am
Good thing I've all those 1.5 releases stacked away because if this all goes through (or even a small part goes through) that's where the train stops, the ship docks for the last time, the aircraft gets grounded.
The wholesale destruction of the language and platform to please its enemies (and Sun's and IBM's marketing folks) that started with 1.6 would be completed in one fell swoop.
Rahul Thakur replied on Fri, 2008/01/25 - 3:29pm
Alex Miller replied on Sat, 2008/01/26 - 9:14pm
Oliver Plohmann replied on Mon, 2008/01/28 - 6:55am
If the introduction of closures is postponed I will definitely run mad at Sun. People that come from high-level languages and have to code in Java where there are no closures are pissed enough already. Sorry for the language. But this had to be said :-))).
Cheers, Olli
prashant jalsutram replied on Mon, 2008/02/04 - 12:48pm
in response to:
Oliver Plohmann
Alex,
This is really cool job and great to have a passionate developer in java community.
Thanks
Prashant Jalasutram
http://prashantjalasutram.blogspot.com/
aslan ozturk replied on Thu, 2008/07/03 - 2:01am
very nice article.
tüp bebek
taranfx fx replied on Sun, 2009/08/30 - 5:50am
Carla Brian replied on Thu, 2012/06/07 - 11:47am