JDK 7

Features

This is the list of features being developed by Oracle, and others, for JDK 7.

These features will be proposed for inclusion in the Java SE 7 Platform JSR, except for those listed as implementation-specific.

Comments to: jdk7-dev at openjdk.java.net

Summary

Features are listed in order, more or less, from lowest to highest in the overall JDK software stack.

vm JSR 292: Support for dynamically-typed languages (InvokeDynamic)

Strict class-file checking

lang JSR 334: Small language enhancements (Project Coin)

core Upgrade class-loader architecture

Method to close a URLClassLoader

Concurrency and collections updates (jsr166y)

i18n Unicode 6.0

Locale enhancement

Separate user locale and user-interface locale

ionet JSR 203: More new I/O APIs for the Java platform (NIO.2)

NIO.2 filesystem provider for zip/jar archives

SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol)

SDP (Sockets Direct Protocol)

Use the Windows Vista IPv6 stack

TLS 1.2

sec Elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC)

jdbc JDBC 4.1

client XRender pipeline for Java 2D

Create new platform APIs for 6u10 graphics features

Nimbus look-and-feel for Swing

Swing JLayer component

Gervill sound synthesizer [NEW]

web Update the XML stack

mgmt Enhanced MBeans [UPDATED]

This list contains one [NEW] feature, which was actually integrated in Milestone 1 but due to a clerical error was not listed here before. There is also one [UPDATED] feature.

Features that were once planned for JDK 7 but later deferred to JDK 8 or a later release are listed at the bottom of this page.

Virtual machine

JSR 292: Support for dynamically-typed languages (InvokeDynamic)

Extensions to the JVM, the Java language, and the Java SE API to support the implementation of dynamically-typed languages at performance levels near to that of the Java language itself

Lead: John Rose

Spec: JSR 292; java.lang.invoke

Links: project page; wiki page; mailing list

Milestone target: M3

Strict class-file checking

As specified in JSR 202, which was part of Java SE 6, and in the recently-approved maintenance revision of JSR 924, class files of version 51 (SE 7) or later must be verified with the typechecking verifier; the VM must not fail over to the old inferencing verifier.

Lead: Karen Kinnear

Spec: JSR 202 §4.11.1

Milestone target: M9

Language

JSR 334: Small language enhancements (Project Coin)

A set of small language changes intended to simplify common, day-to-day programming tasks: Strings in switch statements, try-with-resources statements, improved type inference for generic instance creation ("diamond"), simplified varargs method invocation, better integral literals, and improved exception handling (multi-catch)

Lead: Joe Darcy

Spec: JSR 334

Links: project page; mailing list

Milestone target: M11

Core

Upgrade class-loader architecture

Modifications to the ClassLoader API and implementation to avoid deadlocks in non-hierarchical class-loader topologies

Lead: Karen Kinnear

Spec: java.lang.ClassLoader: registerAsParallelCapable, getClassLoadingLock

Links: summary

Milestone target: M3

Method to close a URLClassLoader

A method that frees the underlying resources, such as open files, held by a URLClassLoader

Lead: Michael McMahon

Spec: java.net.URLClassLoader.close

Links: summary

Milestone target: M2

Concurrency and collections updates (jsr166y)

A lightweight fork/join framework, flexible and reusable synchronization barriers, transfer queues, concurrent linked double-ended queues, and thread-local pseudo-random number generators

Lead: Doug Lea

Spec: java.util.concurrent: ForkJoinPool, Phaser, TransferQueue, ConcurrentLinkedDeque, ThreadLocalRandom

Links: overview; draft api; wiki

Milestone target: M5

Internationalization

Unicode 6.0

Upgrade the supported version of Unicode to 6.0

Lead: Yuka Kamiya

Spec: Unicode 6.0; java.lang.Character

Milestone target: M11

Locale enhancement

Upgrade the java.util.Locale class to support IETF BCP 47 (Tags for Identifying Languages) and UTR 35 (Local Data Markup Language)

Spec: IETF BCP 47 : java.util.Locale: forLanguageTag, toLanguageTag; UTR 35 : java.util.Locale: getUnicodeLocaleAttributes, getUnicodeLocaleType, getUnicodeLocaleKeys

Links: overview

Milestone target: M11

Separate user locale and user-interface locale

Upgrade the handling of locales to separate formatting locales from user-interface language locales

Spec: java.util.Locale: getDefault, setDefault; Locale.Category

Milestone target: M11

I/O and Networking

JSR 203: More new I/O APIs for the Java platform (NIO.2)

New APIs for filesystem access, scalable asynchronous I/O operations, socket-channel binding and configuration, and multicast datagrams

Lead: Alan Bateman

Spec: JSR 203

Links: project page; interview; talk video; java.net article

Milestone target: M2

NIO.2 filesystem provider for zip/jar archives

A fully-functional and supported NIO.2 filesystem provider for zip and jar files

Lead: Alan Bateman

Milestone target: M11

SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol)

An implementation-specific API for the Stream Control Transmission Protocol on Solaris

Lead: Chris Hegarty

Links: project page; mailing list

Milestone target: M3

SDP (Sockets Direct Protocol)

Implementation-specific support for reliable, high-performance network streams over Infiniband connections on Solaris and Linux

Lead: Alan Bateman

Milestone target: M3

Use the Windows Vista IPv6 stack

Upgrade the networking code to use the Windows Vista IPv6 stack, when available, in preference to the legacy Windows stack

Lead: Michael McMahon

Milestone target: M1

TLS 1.2

Add support for Transport Layer Security version 1.2 (RFC 5246)

Lead: Brad Wetmore

Spec: RFC 5246, RFC 5289, RFC 5469; javax.net.ssl: ExtendedSSLSession, SSLSocket.getHandshakeSession

Milestone target: M11

Security & Cryptography

Elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC)

A portable implementation of the standard Elliptic Curve Cryptographic (ECC) algorithms, so that all Java applications can use ECC out-of-the-box

Lead: Vincent Ryan

Milestone target: M5

Database Connectivity

JDBC 4.1

Upgrade to JDBC 4.1 and Rowset 1.1

Lead: Lance Andersen

Spec: java.sql; javax.sql.rowset: RowSetFactory, RowSetProvider

Milestone target: M11

Client

XRender pipeline for Java 2D

A new Java2D graphics pipeline based upon the X11 XRender extension, which provides access to much of the functionality of modern GPUs

Lead: Clemens Eisserer; team3mitri Trembovetski

Milestone target: M9

Create new platform APIs for 6u10 graphics features

Create new platform APIs for features originally implemented in the 6u10 release: Translucent and shaped windows, and heavyweight/lightweight component mixing

Lead: Anthony Petrov

Spec: java.awt: Window: setShape, setOpacity; Component

Milestone target: M3

Nimbus look-and-feel for Swing

A next-generation cross-platform look-and-feel for Swing

Lead: Jasper Potts; team:Richard Bair, Peter Zhelezniakov

Spec: javax.swing.plaf.nimbus

Links: project page

Milestone target: M3

Swing JLayer component

Add the SwingLabs JXLayer component decorator to the platform

Lead: Alexander Potochkin

Spec: javax.swing.JLayer

Links: JXLayer project

Milestone target: M5

Gervill sound synthesizer [NEW]

Drop the old, proprietary, encumbered sound synthesizer in favor of Gervill, a synthesizer created as a proposal for the Audio Synthesis Engine Project

Lead: Karl Helgason

Links: project page

Milestone target: M1

Web

Update the XML stack

Upgrade the components of the XML stack to the most recent stable versions: JAXP 1.4, JAXB 2.2a, and JAX-WS 2.2

Lead: Joe Wang

Spec: Corresponding maintenance reviews of JSR 206 (JAXP), JSR 222 (JAXB), and JSR 224 (JAX-WS)

Milestone target: M12

Management

Enhanced MBeans [UPDATED]

Enhancements to the existing com.sun.management MBeans to report the recent CPU load of the whole system, the CPU load of the JVM process, and to send JMX notifications when GC events occur (this feature previously included an enhanced JMX Agent, but that was dropped due to lack of time)

Lead: Frederic Parain

Spec: com.sun.management: OperatingSystemMXBean, GarbageCollectorMXBean

Milestone target: M13

Deferred to JDK 8 or later

JSR 294: Language and VM support for modular programming

Enhancements to the Java language and virtual-machine specifications to support modular programming, at both compile time and run time

Lead: Alex Buckley

Spec: JSR 294

Links: mailing list

JSR 308: Annotations on Java types

An extension to the Java annotation syntax to permit annotations on any occurrence of a type

Lead: Michael Ernst; team:Jonathan Gibbons

Spec: JSR 308

Links: project page; detailed project page

JSR TBD: Language support for collections

Literal expressions for immutable lists, sets, and maps, and indexing-access syntax for lists and maps

Lead: Joe Darcy

Links: project page; mailing list

JSR TBD: Project Lambda

Lambda expressions (informally, "closures") and defender methods for the Java programming language

Lead: Brian Goetz; team:Alex Buckley, Jonathan Gibbons, Mark Reinhold

Links: project page; mailing list

Modularization (Project Jigsaw)

A simple, low-level module system focused upon the goal of modularizing the JDK, and the application of that system to the JDK itself

Lead: Mark Reinhold; team:Alex Buckley, Jonathan Gibbons

Links: introduction; project page; mailing list

JSR 296: Swing application framework

An API to define the basic structure of a typical Swing application, thereby eliminating lots of boilerplate code and providing a much-improved initial developer experience

Lead: Alexander Potochkin

Spec: JSR 296

Swing JDatePicker component

Add the SwingLabs JXDatePicker component to the platform

Lead: Alexander Potochkin

Links: JXDatePicker api

JDK 7

Features

This is the list of features being developed by Oracle, and others, for JDK 7.

These features will be proposed for inclusion in the Java SE 7 Platform JSR, except for those listed as implementation-specific.

Comments to: jdk7-dev at openjdk.java.net

Summary

Features are listed in order, more or less, from lowest to highest in the overall JDK software stack.

vm JSR 292: Support for dynamically-typed languages (InvokeDynamic)

Strict class-file checking

lang JSR 334: Small language enhancements (Project Coin)

core Upgrade class-loader architecture

Method to close a URLClassLoader

Concurrency and collections updates (jsr166y)

i18n Unicode 6.0

Locale enhancement

Separate user locale and user-interface locale

ionet JSR 203: More new I/O APIs for the Java platform (NIO.2)

NIO.2 filesystem provider for zip/jar archives

SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol)

SDP (Sockets Direct Protocol)

Use the Windows Vista IPv6 stack

TLS 1.2

sec Elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC)

jdbc JDBC 4.1

client XRender pipeline for Java 2D

Create new platform APIs for 6u10 graphics features

Nimbus look-and-feel for Swing

Swing JLayer component

Gervill sound synthesizer [NEW]

web Update the XML stack

mgmt Enhanced MBeans [UPDATED]

This list contains one [NEW] feature, which was actually integrated in Milestone 1 but due to a clerical error was not listed here before. There is also one [UPDATED] feature.

Features that were once planned for JDK 7 but later deferred to JDK 8 or a later release are listed at the bottom of this page.

Virtual machine

JSR 292: Support for dynamically-typed languages (InvokeDynamic)

Extensions to the JVM, the Java language, and the Java SE API to support the implementation of dynamically-typed languages at performance levels near to that of the Java language itself

Lead: John Rose

Spec: JSR 292; java.lang.invoke

Links: project page; wiki page; mailing list

Milestone target: M3

Strict class-file checking

As specified in JSR 202, which was part of Java SE 6, and in the recently-approved maintenance revision of JSR 924, class files of version 51 (SE 7) or later must be verified with the typechecking verifier; the VM must not fail over to the old inferencing verifier.

Lead: Karen Kinnear

Spec: JSR 202 §4.11.1

Milestone target: M9

Language

JSR 334: Small language enhancements (Project Coin)

A set of small language changes intended to simplify common, day-to-day programming tasks: Strings in switch statements, try-with-resources statements, improved type inference for generic instance creation ("diamond"), simplified varargs method invocation, better integral literals, and improved exception handling (multi-catch)

Lead: Joe Darcy

Spec: JSR 334

Links: project page; mailing list

Milestone target: M11

Core

Upgrade class-loader architecture

Modifications to the ClassLoader API and implementation to avoid deadlocks in non-hierarchical class-loader topologies

Lead: Karen Kinnear

Spec: java.lang.ClassLoader: registerAsParallelCapable, getClassLoadingLock

Links: summary

Milestone target: M3

Method to close a URLClassLoader

A method that frees the underlying resources, such as open files, held by a URLClassLoader

Lead: Michael McMahon

Spec: java.net.URLClassLoader.close

Links: summary

Milestone target: M2

Concurrency and collections updates (jsr166y)

A lightweight fork/join framework, flexible and reusable synchronization barriers, transfer queues, concurrent linked double-ended queues, and thread-local pseudo-random number generators

Lead: Doug Lea

Spec: java.util.concurrent: ForkJoinPool, Phaser, TransferQueue, ConcurrentLinkedDeque, ThreadLocalRandom

Links: overview; draft api; wiki

Milestone target: M5

Internationalization

Unicode 6.0

Upgrade the supported version of Unicode to 6.0

Lead: Yuka Kamiya

Spec: Unicode 6.0; java.lang.Character

Milestone target: M11

Locale enhancement

Upgrade the java.util.Locale class to support IETF BCP 47 (Tags for Identifying Languages) and UTR 35 (Local Data Markup Language)

Spec: IETF BCP 47 : java.util.Locale: forLanguageTag, toLanguageTag; UTR 35 : java.util.Locale: getUnicodeLocaleAttributes, getUnicodeLocaleType, getUnicodeLocaleKeys

Links: overview

Milestone target: M11

Separate user locale and user-interface locale

Upgrade the handling of locales to separate formatting locales from user-interface language locales

Spec: java.util.Locale: getDefault, setDefault; Locale.Category

Milestone target: M11

I/O and Networking

JSR 203: More new I/O APIs for the Java platform (NIO.2)

New APIs for filesystem access, scalable asynchronous I/O operations, socket-channel binding and configuration, and multicast datagrams

Lead: Alan Bateman

Spec: JSR 203

Links: project page; interview; talk video; java.net article

Milestone target: M2

NIO.2 filesystem provider for zip/jar archives

A fully-functional and supported NIO.2 filesystem provider for zip and jar files

Lead: Alan Bateman

Milestone target: M11

SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol)

An implementation-specific API for the Stream Control Transmission Protocol on Solaris

Lead: Chris Hegarty

Links: project page; mailing list

Milestone target: M3

SDP (Sockets Direct Protocol)

Implementation-specific support for reliable, high-performance network streams over Infiniband connections on Solaris and Linux

Lead: Alan Bateman

Milestone target: M3

Use the Windows Vista IPv6 stack

Upgrade the networking code to use the Windows Vista IPv6 stack, when available, in preference to the legacy Windows stack

Lead: Michael McMahon

Milestone target: M1

TLS 1.2

Add support for Transport Layer Security version 1.2 (RFC 5246)

Lead: Brad Wetmore

Spec: RFC 5246, RFC 5289, RFC 5469; javax.net.ssl: ExtendedSSLSession, SSLSocket.getHandshakeSession

Milestone target: M11

Security & Cryptography

Elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC)

A portable implementation of the standard Elliptic Curve Cryptographic (ECC) algorithms, so that all Java applications can use ECC out-of-the-box

Lead: Vincent Ryan

Milestone target: M5

Database Connectivity

JDBC 4.1

Upgrade to JDBC 4.1 and Rowset 1.1

Lead: Lance Andersen

Spec: java.sql; javax.sql.rowset: RowSetFactory, RowSetProvider

Milestone target: M11

Client

XRender pipeline for Java 2D

A new Java2D graphics pipeline based upon the X11 XRender extension, which provides access to much of the functionality of modern GPUs

Lead: Clemens Eisserer; team3mitri Trembovetski

Milestone target: M9

Create new platform APIs for 6u10 graphics features

Create new platform APIs for features originally implemented in the 6u10 release: Translucent and shaped windows, and heavyweight/lightweight component mixing

Lead: Anthony Petrov

Spec: java.awt: Window: setShape, setOpacity; Component

Milestone target: M3

Nimbus look-and-feel for Swing

A next-generation cross-platform look-and-feel for Swing

Lead: Jasper Potts; team:Richard Bair, Peter Zhelezniakov

Spec: javax.swing.plaf.nimbus

Links: project page

Milestone target: M3

Swing JLayer component

Add the SwingLabs JXLayer component decorator to the platform

Lead: Alexander Potochkin

Spec: javax.swing.JLayer

Links: JXLayer project

Milestone target: M5

Gervill sound synthesizer [NEW]

Drop the old, proprietary, encumbered sound synthesizer in favor of Gervill, a synthesizer created as a proposal for the Audio Synthesis Engine Project

Lead: Karl Helgason

Links: project page

Milestone target: M1

Web

Update the XML stack

Upgrade the components of the XML stack to the most recent stable versions: JAXP 1.4, JAXB 2.2a, and JAX-WS 2.2

Lead: Joe Wang

Spec: Corresponding maintenance reviews of JSR 206 (JAXP), JSR 222 (JAXB), and JSR 224 (JAX-WS)

Milestone target: M12

Management

Enhanced MBeans [UPDATED]

Enhancements to the existing com.sun.management MBeans to report the recent CPU load of the whole system, the CPU load of the JVM process, and to send JMX notifications when GC events occur (this feature previously included an enhanced JMX Agent, but that was dropped due to lack of time)

Lead: Frederic Parain

Spec: com.sun.management: OperatingSystemMXBean, GarbageCollectorMXBean

Milestone target: M13

Deferred to JDK 8 or later

JSR 294: Language and VM support for modular programming

Enhancements to the Java language and virtual-machine specifications to support modular programming, at both compile time and run time

Lead: Alex Buckley

Spec: JSR 294

Links: mailing list

JSR 308: Annotations on Java types

An extension to the Java annotation syntax to permit annotations on any occurrence of a type

Lead: Michael Ernst; team:Jonathan Gibbons

Spec: JSR 308

Links: project page; detailed project page

JSR TBD: Language support for collections

Literal expressions for immutable lists, sets, and maps, and indexing-access syntax for lists and maps

Lead: Joe Darcy

Links: project page; mailing list

JSR TBD: Project Lambda

Lambda expressions (informally, "closures") and defender methods for the Java programming language

Lead: Brian Goetz; team:Alex Buckley, Jonathan Gibbons, Mark Reinhold

Links: project page; mailing list

Modularization (Project Jigsaw)

A simple, low-level module system focused upon the goal of modularizing the JDK, and the application of that system to the JDK itself

Lead: Mark Reinhold; team:Alex Buckley, Jonathan Gibbons

Links: introduction; project page; mailing list

JSR 296: Swing application framework

An API to define the basic structure of a typical Swing application, thereby eliminating lots of boilerplate code and providing a much-improved initial developer experience

Lead: Alexander Potochkin

Spec: JSR 296

Swing JDatePicker component

Add the SwingLabs JXDatePicker component to the platform

Lead: Alexander Potochkin

Links: JXDatePicker api