Java version history

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Java Web Start, first introduced for J2SE 1.3, allows provisioning applications over the Web by clicking a desktop icon or a link on a website.
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Java Web Start, first introduced for J2SE 1.3, allows provisioning applications over the Web by clicking a desktop icon or a link on a website.

The Java language has undergone several changes since JDK 1.0 as well as numerous additions of classes and packages to the standard library. Since J2SE 1.4, the evolution of the Java Language has been governed by the Java Community Process (JCP), which uses Java Specification Requests (JSRs) to propose and specify additions and changes to the Java platform. The language is specified by the Java Language Specification (JLS); changes to the JLS are managed under JSR 901.

Contents

[edit] JDK 1.0 (January 23, 1996)

Initial release press release

[edit] JDK 1.1 (February 19, 1997)

Major additions included: press release

[edit] J2SE 1.2 (December 8, 1998)

Codename Playground. This and subsequent releases through J2SE 5.0 were rebranded Java 2 and the version name "J2SE" (Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition) replaced JDK to distinguish the base platform from J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition) and J2ME (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition). Major additions included: press release

[edit] J2SE 1.3 (May 8, 2000)

Codename Kestrel. The most notable changes were: press release full list of changes

[edit] J2SE 1.4 (February 6, 2002)

Codename Merlin. This was the first release of the Java platform developed under the Java Community Process as JSR 59. Major changes included: press release full list of changes

[edit] J2SE 5.0 (September 30, 2004)

Codename Tiger. (Originally numbered 1.5, which is still used as the internal version number. [1]) Developed under JSR 176, Tiger added a number of significant new language features: press release full list of changes

  • Generics — provides compile-time (static) type safety for collections and eliminates the need for most typecasts. (Specified by JSR 14.)
  • Metadata — also called annotations, allows language constructs such as classes and methods to be tagged with additional data, which can then be processed by metadata-aware utilities. (Specified by JSR 175.)
  • Autoboxing/unboxing — automatic conversions between primitive types (such as int) and primitive wrapper classes (such as Integer). (Specified by JSR 201.)
  • Enumerations — the enum keyword creates a typesafe, ordered list of values (such as Day.MONDAY, Day.TUESDAY, etc.). Previously this could only be achieved by non-typesafe constant integers or manually constructed classes (typesafe enum pattern). (Specified by JSR 201.)
  • Varargs — the last parameter of a method can now be declared using a type name followed by three dots (e.g. void drawtext(String... lines)). In the calling code any number of parameters of that type can be used and they are then placed in an array to be passed to the method.
  • Enhanced for loop — the for loop syntax is extended with special syntax for iterating over each member of either an array or any Iterable, such as the standard Collection classes, using a construct of the form:
void displayWidgets (Iterable<Widget> widgets) {
    for (Widget w : widgets) {
        w.display();
    }
}

This example iterates over the Iterable object widgets, assigning each of its items in turn to the variable w, and then calling the Widget method display() for each item. (Specified by JSR 201.)

[edit] Java SE 6

Codename Mustang. As of 2006 this is currently in development under JSR 270. Beta versions were released in February and June 2006 and are available at http://java.sun.com/javase/6/. The final release is planned for the first week of December 2006. New builds including enhancements and bug fixes are released approximately weekly. As of this version, Sun replaced the name "J2SE" with Java SE and dropped the ".0" from the version number.[2]. Major changes to be included in this version :

  • Scripting Language Support (JSR 223) : Generic API for tight integration with scripting languages, and built-in Mozilla Javascript Rhino integration
  • Dramatic performance improvements for the core platform [3] [4], and Swing.
  • JDBC 4.0 support (JSR 221).
  • Java Compiler API (JSR 199): an API allowing a Java program to select and invoke a Java Compiler programmatically.
  • Upgrade of JAXB to version 2.0 : Including integration of a Stax parser.
  • Support for pluggable annotations (JSR 269).
  • Lots of GUI improvements, as integration of SwingWorker in the API, tables sorting and filtering, and true Swing double-buffering (eliminating the gray-area effect).

[edit] Java SE 7

Codename Dolphin. This is in the early planning stages. The Dolphin Project started up in August, with release estimated in 2008. New builds including enhancements and bug fixes are released approximately weekly.[5]

In addition to the language changes, much more dramatic changes have been made to the Java class library over the years, which has grown from a few hundred classes in JDK 1.0 to over three thousand in J2SE 5.0. Entire new APIs, such as Swing and Java2D, have been introduced, and many of the original JDK 1.0 classes and methods have been deprecated.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Java (Sun)
Major Technologies: Java (programming language) | Java Platform | Java Development Kit | Java Virtual Machine | Java Runtime Environment
History: Java version history | Criticism of Java | Java Community Process | Sun Microsystems
Language Features: Bytecode | Syntax | Applets | Servlets | JavaServer Pages
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