JDK 9 is Feature Complete!

Today’s Mark Reinhold message JDK 9 is Feature Complete — now it’s time to ramp down announces that JDK 9’s “overall feature set is, at this point, frozen.” Reinhold, Chief Architect of Oracle’s Java Platform Group, adds, “It’s highly unlikely that any further JEPs will be targeted to the release.” Text similar to that in this message is also featured on the JDK 9 page (which was not coincidentally updated today).

The JDK 9 page lists nearly ninety features, including the following subset listed here:

• Modularity
  • 200: The Modular JDK (Jigsaw/JSR 376 and JEP 261)
  • 201: Modular Source Code
  • 220: Modular Run-Time Images
  • 238: Multi-Release JAR Files
  • 259: Stack-Walking API
  • 261: Module System
  • 275: Modular Java Application Packaging
  • 282: jlink: The Java Linker
• Developer Convenience
  • 193: Variable Handles
  • 213: Milling Project Coin
  • 222: jshell: The Java Shell (Read-Eval-Print Loop)
  • 266: More Concurrency Updates
  • 269: Convenience Factory Methods for Collections
  • 277: Enhanced Deprecation
  • 285: Spin-Wait Hints
• Strings
  • 250: Store Interned Strings in CDS Archives
  • 280: Indify String Concatenation
• Diagnostics
  • 228: Add More Diagnostic Commands
  • 240: Remove the JVM TI hprof Agent
  • 241: Remove the jhat Tool
• JVM Options
  • 214: Remove GC Combinations Deprecated in JDK 8
  • 245: Validate JVM Command-Line Flag Arguments
  • 248: Make G1 the Default Garbage Collector
• Logging
  • 158: Unified JVM Logging
  • 264: Platform Logging API and Service
  • 271: Unified GC Logging
• Javadoc
  • 224: HTML5 Javadoc
  • 225: Javadoc Search
  • 254: Compact Strings
• JavaScript/HTTP
  • 110: HTTP 2 Client (and begin replacing “the legacy HttpURLConnection API”)
  • 236: Parser API for Nashorn
  • 289: Deprecate the Applet API
  • 292: Implement Selected ECMAScript 6 Features in Nashorn
• Native Platform
  • 102: Process API Updates (“Improve the API for controlling and managing operating-system processes.”)
  • 272: Platform-Specific Desktop Features
• JavaFX
  • 253: Prepare JavaFX UI Controls & CSS APIs for Modularization
  • 257: Update JavaFX/Media to Newer Version of GStreamer
• Images
  • 251: Multi-Resolution Images
  • 262: TIFF Image I/O
• Unicode
  • 227: Unicode 7.0
  • 267: Unicode 8.0
• Miscellaneous
  • 219: Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS)
  • 256: BeanInfo Annotations
  • 260: Encapsulate Most Internal APIs
  • 274: Enhanced Method Handles
  • 295: Ahead-of-Time Compilation

According to Reinhold’s message and the current JDK 9 page, the JDK 9 Rampdown Phase has begun “in which we aim to fix the bugs that need to be fixed and understand why we’re not going to fix some bugs that perhaps ought to be fixed.”

Reinhold and the JDK 9 page state that “it is highly unlikely that any further JEPs will be targeted to the [JDK 9] release.” They add the types of things that might still be added:

• “Small enhancements to new features will be considered, but the bar is now much higher.”
• “Low-risk enhancements that add small bits of missing functionality or improve usability may be approved, especially when justified by developer feedback.”
• “Enhancements to tests or documentation do not require advance approval.”

The JDK 9 page currently shows 27 July 2017 as the “General Availability” date for JDK 9.