Groovy, the veteran language for the Java virtual machine, has several enhancements on its roadmap, such as to support Java 9 modularity and Java 8 lambda capabilities. Although closely linked to Java, Groovy offers additional capabilities such as the ability to write compile-time transformations and macros.

The Apache Software Foundation plans the following Groovy upgrades in the next year:

Versions 2.5, due in early 2018 for Java 7 and later.

Version 2.6 and 3.0, both set to arrive in about a year, and both currently available in alpha releases. Version 2.6 is aimed at Java 7 users, and Version 3.0 at Java 8 and 9 users; their capabitiies will be similar.

Planned Groovy 3.0 features

When Groovy 3.0 is released, you can expect the following additions and enhancements:

Groovy 3.0 will add support for Java 8 lambda syntax and method references.

Users will be able to run Groovy with the Java 9 JVM without getting warnings about features possibly not being supported.

Groovy can be invoked as a module on the JVM, using the Java 9 module path instead of the traditional classpath, which has not been set up to work with modules. The level of support for this capability is still being determined.

A more-flexible parser, called Parrot, supports additional syntax and language features.

Java’s class do/while loop, to ensure execution of a block of statements, is supported.

A macro capability expands the options for building compile-time transformations.

Java-style array initialization is added.

New operators for capabilities such as identity comparison are added.

Groovy 2.6 will have similar capabilities for Java 7 users.

Planned Groovy 2.5 features

When Groovy 2.5 is released, you can expect the following additions and enhancements:

Additional compile-time transformations to improve productivity.

A macro capability, expanding options for building compile-time transformations.

Better JSON parsing, for writing web applications that need to talk to a back-end system.

Improvements to tools and libraries.

Where to download Groovy

You can download the various versions of Groovy from the project’s Bintray repository.