Java Updates

Oracle chief architect moves to drop part of Java 8 to speed up release

Oracle’s chief architect Mark Reinhold has announced on his blog that “Project Jigsaw”, a proposed Java 8 component to introduce a standard module system for Java SE, would be best delayed until Java 9.

As a result, says Reinhold, Java 8 will now remain on-track for its proposed release in September 2013, while Jigsaw won’t appear for a further two years, in September 2015’s Java 9.

Reinhold has opened the matter up to the Java SE 8 Expert Group, saying, “Deferring Project Jigsaw to 2015 is by no means a pleasant decision. It does, however, appear to be the best available option”.

User comments on the site have shown an amount of disappointment, and even anger, as Project Jigsaw is deferred for a second time. It was originally meant to have been included in Java 7.

Reinhold points out, however, that eagerly awaited features such as Project Lambda, which supports multicore environment programming, a new Date and Time API that supports timezone and calendar systems, and annotate syntax locations are all still going to prove strong features of Java 8.

“To put the stark choice before us in another way, and more generally,” said Reinhold, “When a train is scheduled to leave the station should we hold it until all the expected passengers are on board? Or should we raise the ball, let the train go, and tell anyone who’s late to wait for the next one, which will also depart precisely as scheduled?”