Oracle Proposes 6-Month Release Cadence for Java

Mark Reinhold, chief architect of Oracle's Java Platform Group, says "Java needs to move forward faster" if it's going to compete effectively with other software development platforms, which are evolving at a more rapid pace. He made that rather non-controversial declaration this morning on his personal blog, but he also offered a strategy for making this happen that might stir some debate.

Posted by John K. Waters on September 6, 20170 comments

Java Popularity Slips in TIOBE Index

Java earned an "all-time low score" in the latest TIOBE Programming Community Index, along with C, and yet the two programming languages retained the top two spots, ranking first and second, respectively.

In fact, all the top 10 languages in the TIOBE index except one (Visual Basic .NET) slipped in the rankings, year to year. TIOBE researchers credit this shift to the rise in popularity of a group of leaner languages that includes Crystal (No. 32), Kotlin (No. 41), Clojure (No. 42), Hack (No. 43), and Julia (No. 46).

Posted by John K. Waters on August 7, 20170 comments

Latest Oracle CPU Sets Another Record, Addresses 32 Java-related Vulnerabilities

Oracle set another record with its latest quarterly Critical Patch Update (CPU), which included 308 vulnerability fixes, 32 of which were Java-related. Released earlier this month, this CPU more than doubles the 136 fixes issued just over a year ago.

Posted by John K. Waters on July 26, 20170 comments

Jigsaw Gets Approved on Reconsideration Ballot

Did you hear that, a kind of whooshing sound coming from the Java community? It was a collective sigh of relief as word got out about the results of the Public Review Reconsideration Ballot for JSR 376, the Java Platform Module System (JPMS) specification, better known as Jigsaw. In case you missed it, the votes were 24 in favor with one abstention (Red Hat). No "no" votes this time around.

Posted by John K. Waters on July 17, 20170 comments

JDK 9 Now in Initial Release-Candidate Phase

As JDK 9 enters the Release-Candidate Phase, it's worth noting exactly what that means for this oft-delayed release. In a nutshell, the Initial Release Candidate phase, which started on June 22, is about fixing "showstopper" bugs and building momentum toward the Final Release Candidate milestone, currently scheduled for July 6.

Posted by John K. Waters on June 28, 20170 comments

Jigsaw Issues Delay Java 9 Release (Again), But EC Concerns Addressed

Although he wants to continue pushing for a June 22 Release Candidate build, Mark Reinhold has announced a Sept. 21 General Availability release for the JDK 9 project. That's eight weeks past the previously scheduled July 27 GA release, which is going to be frustrating for many in the Java community. But there is reason to hope that this will be the final delay.

Posted by John K. Waters on June 14, 20170 comments

AWS Gets Gosling

James Gosling, the Father of Java, is on the move again. This time, according to a public post on Facebook, it's Amazon Web Services.

"It's time for a change," Gosling wrote. "I'm leaving Boeing Defense (nee Liquid Robotics), with many fond memories. Today I start a new Adventure at Amazon Web Services."

Posted by John K. Waters on May 23, 20170 comments

Q&A with JNBridge's Wayne Citrin: 15 Years with a Foot in Two Worlds

When Wayne Citrin and his partners founded JNBridge back in 2001, Java was about five years old, .NET was still in beta, and the term "cross-platform interoperability" wasn't exactly rolling off the tongues of software vendors. But what seemed like irreconcilable differences at the start of the 21st century looked to Citrin and his partners like opportunity.

Posted by John K. Waters on April 12, 20170 comments

Eclipse Converge 2017: Milinkovich on Eclipse

Mike Milinkovich, the executive director of the Eclipse Foundation, kicked off Eclipse Converge 2017 this week with an update for attendees on doings at the 13-year-old organization.

The Foundation grew over the past year to 331 projects, Milinkovich said, and the rate of increase seems to be accelerating. "In the past couple of quarters, we've had more new Eclipse project proposals than I can ever remember," he said. Milinkovich underscored the quality of the ongoing projects at the Foundation with a reminder of how vigorously his organization separates the wheat from the chaff. "We think it should be pretty easy to start an Eclipse project," he said, "but if it's not going well or there's not a lot of activity, we're going to garbage collect every summer."

Posted by John K. Waters on March 22, 20170 comments