Marketing Blog, Legacy projects in companies are often stuck using Java 8 (see the ". With the switch to time-based releases with Java 9 the naming scheme also changed, and Java versions aren’t prefixed with 1.x anymore. Defines an API for supporting distributed transactions in JDBC. I'm @MarcoBehler and I share everything I know about making awesome software through my guides, screencasts, talks and courses. To find more guides, visit the website or subscribe to the newsletter to get notified of newly published guides: https://bit.ly/2K0Ao4F. Some legacy projects are even stuck on Java 1.5 (released 2004) or 1.6 (released 2006) — sorry, pals! Report a bug or suggest an enhancement For further API reference and developer documentation see the Java SE Documentation, which contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples. There’s two main feature sets I’d like to mention here, though: Before Java 8, whenever you wanted to instantiate, for example, a new Runnable, you had to write an anonymous inner class like so: With lambdas, the same code looks like this: You also got method references, repeating annotations, default methods for interfaces and a few other language features. Your unzipped Java file will look like this: The magic happens in the /bin directory, which under Windows looks like this: So all you need to do is unzip that file and put the /bin directory in your PATH variable, so you can call the 'java' command from anywhere. You do not just "learn" a specific Java version, like 12. I highly recommended if you are looking to install Java. Therefore, all you need to do to install Java onto your machine, is to unzip your jdk-{5-14}.zip file. What the differences between the specific Java versions are. Java versions before 9 simply had a different naming scheme. Module java.se. The directory structure of JDKs also changed, with not having an explicit JRE folder anymore. Defines the Java binding of the IETF Generic Security Services API (GSS-API). There are now record classes, which help alleviate the pain of writing a lot of boilerplate with Java. Scripting on this page tracks web page traffic, but does not change the content in any way. These builds are free and unbranded, but Oracle won’t release updates for older versions, say Java 15, as soon as Java 16 comes out. You don’t even need administrator rights for that. Flight Recorder, No-Op Garbage Collector, Nashorn-Javascript-Engine deprecated, etc. You can find a complete feature list here, but essentially, you are getting Unicode 12.1 support, as well as two new or improved preview features (subject to change in the future): Switch expressions can now return a value. So, even though some distributions (see the "Java Distributions" section) still offer a separate JRE download, there seems to be the trend of offering just a JDK. To develop new Java programs, you needed to download a JDK. Simply leave a comment down below. How to install Java, which version to get, and where to get it from (hint: What a Java distribution is, which ones exist, and what are the differences. So, your program can behave differently/have different classes used when run on Java 8 vs. Java 10, for example. Among them are Azul Zulu, Amazon Corretto as well as SapMachine, to name a few. Optionals got the sorely missed ifPresentOrElse method. A JRE includes, among other things, the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and the "java" command line tool. OracleJDK, which is a branded, commercial build starting with the license change in 2019. With records, it can now be written like this: Again, this is a preview feature and subject to change in future releases. With the Streams API, you can do the following: Java 9 also was a fairly big release, with a couple of additions: Collections got a couple of new helper methods to easily construct Lists, Sets, and Maps. But make sure to check out the individual websites to learn about the advantages of each single distribution. Whereas previously you had to (cast) your objects inside an instanceof like this: You can now do this, effectively dropping the cast. Up until now, we have only been talking about "Java." But what is Java exactly? Here’s a quick overview of what specific versions have to offer: Java 8 was a massive release and you can find a list of all features at the Oracle website. CLI) utilities they deem useful. Oracle changed the licensing scheme In 2019, though, which led the internet go crazy with a ton of articles saying "Java is not free anymore" - and a fair amount of confusion followed. Java is special in this regard, as it is extremely backwards compatible. Over a million developers have joined DZone. Some companies have policies to only use LTS versions and rely on their OS vendors to provide them these builds, which takes time. Strings and files got a couple of new methods (not all listed here): Starting with Java 10, you can run Java source files without having to compile them first. First, you need to differentiate between a JRE (Java Runtime Environment) and a JDK (Java Development Kit). So, Java 8 can also be called 1.8, Java 5 can be called 1.5 etc. If you want to learn more about a specific version, go to the AdoptOpenJDKsite, choose the latest Java version, download, and install it. Defines the Remote Method Invocation (RMI) API. Select the lib folder in the directory where we previously unpacked the JavaFX SDK library. If the output looks like the one below, you are good to go! It then boils down to you wanting paid, commercial support (a telephone number) for your installed Java version. It is not in the scope of this guide to go into full detail on Jigsaw, but have a look at the previous links to learn more. But our distribution would lack certification, to be able to legally call ourselves Java SE compatible. They provide free, rock-solid OpenJDK builds with longer availability/updates and even offer you the choice of two different Java Virtual Machines: HotSpot and OpenJ9. Again, this is just a quick overview of Java 9 features and if you want more thorough explanations and exercises, have a look at the Java 9 core features course. One of the vendors who builds Java from source is Oracle. To sum up: you have a mix of practical issues (upgrading your tools, libraries, frameworks) and political issues. Optionals got the sorely missed ifPresentOrElse method. Java 12 got a couple new features and clean-ups, but the only ones worth mentioning here are Unicode 11 support and a preview of the new switch expression, which you will see covered in the next section. JVM Ecosystem Survey: Why Devs Aren't Switching to Java 11. Oracle changed the. Now the version number looks like this: Coming from other programming languages with major breakages between releases, like say Python 2 to 3, you might be wondering if the same applies to Java. (We can also define this library as Global Libraries, and then only import to individual projects / modules). So, Java 8 can also be called 1.8, Java 5 can be called 1.5, etc. In Java 8 you also got functional-style operations for collections, also known as the Stream API. This means that your Java 5 or 8 program is guaranteed to run with a Java 8-14 virtual machine - with a few exceptions you don’t need to worry about for now. In theory, you and I could produce a build from that source code, call it, say, MarcoJDK, and start distributing it. Defines the AWT and Swing user interface toolkits, plus APIs for With the switch to time-based releases with Java 9, the naming scheme also changed, and Java versions aren’t prefixed with 1.x anymore. But as of today, both versions are essentially the same, with minor differences. Even today, with e.g. Hence, we are going to use Java and JDK interchangeably from now on. Check back soon. They provide free, rock-solid OpenJDK builds with longer availibility/updates and even offer you the choice of two different Java virtual machines: HotSpot and OpenJ9. To re-iterate from the beginning, in 2019, unless you have very specific requirements, go get your jdk.zip (.tar.gz/.msi/.pkg) file from https://adoptopenjdk.net or choose a package provided by your OS vendor. Have a look at the "Java Features 8-13" section below. Java 11 was also a somewhat smaller release, from a developer perspective. Rafael Winterhalter compiled a great list of all available OpenJDK builds, including their OS, architecture, licensing, support and maintenance windows. If you are making sure to use the very latest IDEs, frameworks, and build tools and starting a greenfield project, you can, without hesitation, use Java 11 (LTS) or even the latest Java 13. Java 11 was also a somewhat smaller release, from a developer perspective. Therefore, all you need to do to install Java onto your machine is to unzip your jdk-{5-13}.zip file. But the only real change you as a developer will likely see is the introduction of the var keyword, also called local-variable type inference. Simply leave a comment down below. If the output looks like the one below, you are good to go. At first version Java versions with the license change in 2019 versions Java versions essentially! Corretto, as it is extremely backwards compatible also a somewhat smaller release, from a guide like:... 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