After years of patient waiting, Oracle released Java 9 with numerous new features. Project Jigsaw gives Java 9 the modularization that was missing in Java 8, making the latest version capable of strong encapsulation free from the package limitations. Project Jigsaw also brings the JAR archive, which is public and not encapsulated.
Oracle Java 9 released
That’s just the beginning. Java 9 is capable of defining modules and domain-driven design. Java 9 will minimize memory usage and increase efficiency with its ability to break down the JDK and JRE into individual modules defining the requirements of each little program.
All this was just about the changes Project Jigsaw brings. Apart from that, Java 9 comes with jshell, the CLI program for the command line. With an additional API, other apps too can use jshell.
Java 9 makes things more convenient with better Unicode support and easy object defining with varargs. In addition to these modifications to make coding easier and expression more flexible for any required purpose, Java 9 will also offer HTTP/2 support for reduced latency. Java 9 will continue being compatible with the previous HTTP versions for increased flexibility.
The primary objective of Java 9 looks like compact memory usage and faster delivery. Java 9 comes with JEP 254 that has one byte array and one encoding field for String class. Java 9 did away with the char array to prevent wastage of the second byte where not necessary. The encoding field is designed to automatically recognize UTF-16 characters (requiring 2 bytes) and Latin-1 characters (requiring 1 byte) in the string. This new modification is compatible with older versions as well so everybody can benefit from it.
Java 9 also enables JavaDoc to produce HTML5, while maintaining compatibility with the previous HTML4.01 version. Java 9 brings improved graphics for Linux and Windows with automatic scaling HiDPI graphics, which is already present as the ‘retina display’ on Mac. Now Linux and Windows too will get to choose the best fitting resolution for a required image, says the blog post.
Java 9 comes with numerous new modifications apart from the major ones mentioned. Java 9 sure made us wait, but now that it’s here, it has brought every advanced support we could wish for, keeping all the older versions for perfect flexibility, and immensely high efficiency and speed.
