I just realized due to a forum thread that it’s been about 7 months since I posted my Java 7 Predictions. So, it seems like a good time to update those predictions.

At the time I was expecting that the Java SE 7 JSR would be created before JavaOne 2008 but obviously that didn’t happen and we’re still waiting for the JSR. Waiting on what, I’m not really sure. I know the open source effort and subsequent JavaFX in Java 6 work has been soaking up a lot of focus, but seems like it’s still a bit late. Maybe it’s on vacation for the summer.

Anyhow, I’m going to organize this a bit differently this time by putting stuff in three categories – Likely, Possible, and Unlikely. As always, these are my own opinions based on stuff I’ve read although I talk to various spec leads and members occasionally, you should trust this about as much as anything you read on the net. Also, these don’t reflect what I’d like to see, just what I think is most likely.

Likely

Possible

Feature Chance Comment JSR 275 Units and Quantities 60% Well defined, but I’m not sure this will be included in the actual JDK JSR 284 Resource Consumption Management 50% Hard to judge this one – there is a proposed final spec and seemingly interested support from major players, but not too much info out there. JSR 326 Post Mortem JVM Diagnostics API 40% Depends on timing, just starting now so would depend on JSR moving fast and Java 7 moving slow Type Literals 40% I think some useful class or reflective helper will be added as a small stopgap to no reified generics. Type Inference 40% Possible but hard to tell

Unlikely

If you’re interested in watching the Java 7 space, check out my Java 7 link blog (RSS).