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'Java 9, It Did Break Some Things': Oracle Bod Admits To Developers Still Clinging To Version 8 (theregister.co.uk)

Posted by msmash on from the that's-a-start dept.

Java has a problem -- the language and platform is evolving faster than ever, but many developers are stuck on the five-year-old Java 8. From a report: So why have developers not upgraded? Simply, Java 9 introduced major changes, including internal restructuring, new modularity (known as "Project Jigsaw"), and the removal of little-used APIs. These changes broke code, and even developers who are happy to make the necessary revisions have dependency issues. "We have problems with libraries that do not yet support the latest versions," said one QCon attendee.

"I want to explain why it was necessary," said Oracle's Ron Pressler, part of the Java platform group developing the language and lead for Project Loom. "There are billions of lines of code in Java, and Java 9, it did break some things. The reason is that Java is 20-something years old. It will probably be big and popular in another 20 years. We have to think 20 years ahead. The way the JDK was structured prior to Java 9 was just unmaintainable. We could not keep Java competitive if we had not done that change. That was an absolute necessity."

5 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. java is a dead language by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I know of no new development done on java applications or anyone in my company doing anything with java. its all python now, if its not a compiled language like C. more interest in golang, actually, than java.

    in india, they are still behind the times and still lazily using java. but the ROW is moving on to python and while python2 vs python3 has its issues, its nothing like the monstrocity that is java.

    "write once, run everywhere". fucking pack of lies that is.

    java can fuck off and die. sooner the better.

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    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    1. Re:java is a dead language by Knetzar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Many large new projects are in Java at companies like Google and Amazon. Google doesn't use Python for big projects, but instead picks C++, Java, or Go.

      I also have no idea how India was brought into this.

    2. Re: java is a dead language by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Java is as fast as C for the most part and is the backbone of a significant number of applications. Python could not handle the set of problems Java has solved and continues to solve. Call me in twenty years when Python has done something other than fill in some small gap in the computing space. That is all.

  2. That is a crazy statement by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I know of no new development done on java applications

    Come on, Java server development is still going strong

    I mean, some companies are still using Cobol, and you think Java is going anywhere?

    Not to mention not all Android developers have moved to Kotlin, that is a many year process - in the meantime there is a ton of Android Java code, and even new apps being developed in Java until widespread Kotlin expertise ramps up.

    "write once, run everywhere". fucking pack of lies that is.

    Why? That actually worked well. In the past I worked on desktop Java apps that I could run across various systems (and still work today).

    When I moved to server development, we would sometimes shift between systems like Solaris and Linux or some BSD variants, but while we may have had to tune the VM we did not change the code...

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    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  3. Re:"I want to explain why it was necessary," by Linux+Torvalds · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "It will probably be big and popular in another 20 years"

    No, Oracle has pretty much fixed THAT problem, I'd say.