This is a weekly update on new Java 7 information. All current and previous information is maintained on my Java 7 page.

There’s been a lot of chatter lately about the direction of Java, whether it’s a dead end, blah blah blah. I’m sure you’ve seen enough of it – the InfoQ summary is pretty good and will give you the highlights and the links. From my perspective, 1) Java is going to be used by lots of people for a long time, 2) features are going to be added to both the language and the libraries, and 3) backwards compatibility will continue to be a key consideration. I think Java will evolve, but it’s a mature language, so it will evolve slowly. I’ll also throw out a link to Dan’s post on Java NG as a fun place to throw out ideas on what you could do with all constraints removed.

Interesting post from David Dice talking through a change in Java 7 for how Java thread priorities are mapped on Solaris. And Steve Goldman posted an update on a long side excursion he’s taken on the road to tiered compilation.

Modularity

Glyn Normington posted his thoughts on the shortcomings of the latest JSR 294 draft.

More info: JSR 294

Libraries

Stephen Colebourne posted a suggestion for a library addition to convert checked exceptions to unchecked.

Language Proposals

As always, I’ve got a slew of closures articles for your perusal. Parley’s has the closures Q&A with Josh Bloch up on their site. Flying Frog gave a functional perspective on the closures debate. And finally Howard Lovatt showed his alternative to restricted closures.

More info: Closures