Java Versions, Features and History
This article gives you a highlight of important features added in every major Java release. Check this article to know about Java history, I am sure you will find it interesting.
Java SE 8
Java 8 was released on 18 March 2014. The code name culture is dropped with Java 8 and so no official code name going forward from Java 8.
New features in Java SE 8
- Lambda Expressions
- Pipelines and Streams
- Date and Time API
- Default Methods
- Type Annotations
- Nashhorn JavaScript Engine
- Concurrent Accumulators
- Parallel operations
- PermGen Error Removed
- TLS SNI
Java Version SE 7
Code named Dolphin and released on July 28, 2011.
New features in Java SE 7
- Strings in switch Statement
- Type Inference for Generic Instance Creation
- Multiple Exception Handling
- Support for Dynamic Languages
- Try with Resources
- Java nio Package
- Binary Literals, underscore in literals
- Diamond Syntax
- Automatic null Handling
Java Version SE 6
Code named Mustang and released on December 11, 2006.
New features in Java SE 6
- Scripting Language Support
- JDBC 4.0 API
- Java Compiler API
- Pluggable Annotations
- Native PKI, Java GSS, Kerberos and LDAP support.
- Integrated Web Services.
- Lot more enhancements.
J2SE Version 5.0
Code named Tiger and released on September 30, 2004.
New features in J2SE 5.0
- Generics
- Enhanced for Loop
- Autoboxing/Unboxing
- Typesafe Enums
- Varargs
- Static Import
- Metadata (Annotations)
- Instrumentation
J2SE Version 1.4
Code named Merlin and released on February 6, 2002 (first release under JCP).
New features in J2SE 1.4
- XML Processing
- Java Print Service
- Logging API
- Java Web Start
- JDBC 3.0 API
- Assertions
- Preferences API
- Chained Exception
- IPv6 Support
- Regular Expressions
- Image I/O API
J2SE Version 1.3
Code named Kestrel and released on May 8, 2000.
New features in J2SE 1.3
- Java Sound
- Jar Indexing
- A huge list of enhancements in almost all the java area.
J2SE Version 1.2
Code named Playground and released on December 8, 1998.
New features in J2SE 1.2
- Collections framework.
- Java String memory map for constants.
- Just In Time (JIT) compiler.
- Jar Signer for signing Java ARchive (JAR) files.
- Policy Tool for granting access to system resources.
- Java Foundation Classes (JFC) which consists of Swing 1.0, Drag and Drop, and Java 2D class libraries.
- Java Plug-in
- Scrollable result sets, BLOB, CLOB, batch update, user-defined types in JDBC.
- Audio support in Applets.
JDK Version 1.1
Released on February 19, 1997
New features in JDK 1.1
- JDBC (Java Database Connectivity)
- Inner Classes
- Java Beans
- RMI (Remote Method Invocation)
- Reflection (introspection only)
JDK Version 1.0
Codenamed Oak and released on January 23, 1996.
Wishing you a happy new year!
This Core Java tutorial was added on 01/01/2012.