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ava 9 has been finally released. The programming enthusiasts would be pretty relieved as Java 9 Standard Edition was previously delayed due to modularity controversy. Find Java SE Development Kit 9 Downloads

JDK 9 is the first major upgrade to standard Java edition since March 2014. It comes loaded with tons of new features, which makes it a pretty exciting release for developers.

Java 9 features: Brief overview

Project Jigsaw — Module System

The major change in Java 9 comes in the form of Project Jigsaw, which is an all-new module system. It’s the most important feature of Java, that has also received tons of criticism. This feature will bring modularity to JDK, run-time images, Java source code, etc. The developers can also create their own modules and simplify the code.

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JShell

With JDK 9, now you can fire the JShell from the console and go crazy with your Java code. JShell allows you to test different Java constructs without any hassle.

Stream API enhancements

With Stream API enhancements, Java 9 comes with the added methods to conditionally take or drop items from the Stream, create a Stream from nullable value while expanding Java SE APIs, etc.

Process API Changes

With Process API improvements, Java 9 ensures that OS process are controlled and managed in a better manner.

Segmented Code Cache

With the help of Segmented Code Cache in JDK 9, the code cache can be divided into different segments. Each of those segments can contain compiled code of a particular type. This Java 9 feature is expected to improve performance.

Ahead of time compilation

While it’s in the experimental stage, AOT-compilation is expected to improve the startup time of applications.

New HTTP 2 Client

Java 9 features list is incomplete without the mention of a new HTTP client API for implementing HTTP/2 and WebSocket. It’ll improve web page loading times, performance, and reduce resource usage.

Parser API for Nashorn

JDK 9 ships with a parser API for Nashorn, whose goal was to implement a lightweight high-performance JS runtime in Java with a native JVM. This API ensures better Project Nashorn JS support

Other major-minor features

The other Java 9 features are:

Multi-release JARs

Process API updates

Garbage Collector improvements

Better Javadoc

Private interface methods

That’s not all; The list of Java 9 features is even longer. You can find the complete set of features in the release notes.

Download Java 9

As Java 9 Standard Edition is now publicly available, go ahead and download it from here. Don’t forget to share your views on JDK 9 and personal experiences with us.

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