I had just published a Java 7 roundup when I got an email from a little birdy in my inbox: JUGs to propose new language JSR for Java 7!

This message reveals that the “Closures for Java” JSR has been submitted as a joint proposal of the Belgian and Brazilian Java Users Groups!! This is the first proposal ever by a JUG – very cool.

Additionally, a collection of smaller language changes has been submitted as a Google-led proposal and will include:

• Improved type inference – eliminate generics on RHS of constructor invocations in constructors and explicit generic type arguments
• Enum comparison – support >, <, etc with enums
• String switch – use string literals in case clause
• Chained invocations – void methods implicitly return “this”
• Extension methods – add extra methods via static import
• Improved catch clauses – allow single catch block to catch multiple exception types, and better support for rethrown exceptions

As always, all current and previous information is maintained on my Java 7 page, which has now been updated based on the info in this announcement.