Devoxx 2013 Keynote: Java 8 and beyond

Mark Reinhold, Brian Goetz

Java: 18 years old

• static language, but many dynamic features
• many great features: gc, JIT ..
• principles Java Language
  • reading code more important than writing
  • simplicity
  • one language, same everywhere

Java 8 features:

• lambda expressions (+ type inference)
• default methods in interfaces
• java.util.stream: aggregate / data-parallel operations

lambda expressions:

• inspiration: How to think about Parallel Programming -- Not (Guy Steele) (http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Thinking-Parallel-Programming)
• more expressive code
  • instead of boilerplate of anonymous inner classes
  • syntax inspired from C#
  • single-method interfaces
  • ´´default´´ methods
    • default implementation
    • fully virtual
    • how stream() method was added
• more powerful:
  • treat behavior as data
  • "gentle turn for the functional"
  • push away from mutative / imperative
  • huge impact on API design
• more parallel
  • aggregate operations (filter, conversions, max, etc.)
  • stream() -> parallelStream() (single parallel pass on datasets)
  • retrofitted Collections

next:

• value types: key enabler for
  • tuples,
  • user-defined primitive types