Java 8 Developer Preview Released

An anonymous reader writes "Oracle has released the first developer preview of Java 8 for the full range of platforms (Windows, Max OS X, Linux, Solaris). Java 8 is a major update to both language and platform with Lambda expressions, method references, default methods, a new Date and Time API, Compact Profiles, the Nashorn JavaScript Engine, and the removal of the Permanent Generation from the HotSpot virtual machine. 'This milestone is intended for broad testing by developers,' Java Platform Chief Architect Mark Reinhold wrote on his blog. 'We've run all tests on all Oracle-supported platforms and haven't found any glaring issues. We've also fixed many of the bugs discovered since we reached the Feature Complete milestone back in June.' Let the bug hunt commence!" This is the second part of the JDK "Plan B" where JDK 7 was pushed out without cool new features like lambda expressions to prevent stalling language development for too long.

Comments

Re: How about...

[binarylarry]

Those issues weren't with the language or the vm. They were with applets, which are a shitty deprecated part of the runtime that should be removed.

Re:Too late

[sproketboy]

Really? Java is still the #1 language and will remain so for a long time to come. The toddlers will use the supposed hip languages all they want meanwhile most other devs are just using Java and solving real problems.

Oh and Java uptake is usually 1 to 2 years not 4.

Re:What do lambdas provide that anon classes do no

[abies]

It makes a huge difference in readability when transforming collections. Difference between (Xtend example)

people.filter[age >30].forEach[println(it)]

and

people.filter(new Predicate1() {
      public boolean match(Person p) {
          return p.getAge()>30;
      }
}).forEach(new Procedure1() {
      public void run(Person p) {
            System.out.println(p);
      }
});

in readability and ease to write goes outside of what I normally call 'syntax sugar'. Going this way, most languages can be defined as syntax sugar over assembly...

Re:A Joke

[RaceProUK]

The 1990's called - they want their joke back. #tiredmeme

Modern JVMs are fast enough, most people can't tell the difference between them and pure native code.