Java Annotated Monthly: May 2017

After a few, blissful, drama-free issues, this month we look into the tension between the community and the Stewards of Java (again). This time, the topic is modularity. Feedback from the community is always a Good Thing to help improve the platform, but when Jigsaw was due for release with Java 9 in two months, it gets a little more… interesting. Java 9 isn’t the only news. As usual, we’re covering Java’s future, linking to blogs and tutorials for Java (including Android) code and design, and we’ve added a whole new section for Java performance this month.

Java 9

Probably the most important news of the month is community concerns around Jigsaw (modularity for Java), the big ticket item for Java 9. The first article in this section is a long, in-depth critique of the approach taken by Oracle.

• Concerns Regarding Jigsaw (JSR-376, Java Platform Module System)
• Is Jigsaw good or is it wack? (thoughts on the article above)
• Will Jigsaw lead to the fragmentation of the Java community? (short overview of both previous articles)
• InfoQ reports this week that IBM and Red Hat to Vote “No” on Java Modules (Jigsaw)
• For others, the problem is not playing nicely with Maven: Why Maven Cannot Generate Your Module Declaration

This is an unusual situation for Java, and it’s not clear yet what it means. Will Java 9 be pushed back again so it can be amended further? Or will the community prefer to simply get their hands on the solution that’s been in progress for so long? Voting on JSR 376 (Jigsaw) closes on 8 May so we’ll keep you updated.

Of course, there’s more Java 9 news and background.

• The true impact of modular Java (written less than a month ago, but before the above “concerns” were published)
• Java 8 vs. Java 9: Get Ready for a New Era (very business-focused, may be useful to wave at “management”. Be aware the content is out of date, e.g. the Money API was pulled out of Java 9 a while ago)
• Java 9: Step by Step From Zero to Modules (Part 1) (but remember you don’t have to do everything from the command line)
• Java 9 (Part 2): JShell Step by Step (for more help check out the quite old, but very detailed, REPL tutorial)

Note: if you were previously downloading your Early Access copies of Java 9 from https://jdk9.java.net/download/ you need to update your bookmarks to http://jdk.java.net/9/

Java Future

News about Java EE 8 has been quiet lately (again), but it’s not due to lack of progress.

• Java EE 8 – March recap
• Light at the End of the Long Tunnel for Java EE 8 (summary of where we are today)
• Stanford Uni’s intro to CompSci course adopts JavaScript, bins Java (hold the Java-is-dead hand-wringing, it was replaced for intro courses only, still in use for advanced)

Java in General

A mixed offering of Java-specific but otherwise-difficult-to-classify articles.

• Salaries and Job Offerings Categorized by Programming Language (spoiler: Java is about what you’d expect)
• Maven cheat sheet (Note: We’ve also just updated our Working with Maven in IntelliJ IDEA video)
• Implications of the Presence of StringBuffer
• Compile Time Dynamism Using Java Generics
• Which Java Logging Framework Has the Best Performance?
• How to Effectively Sweep Problems Under the Rug in Java

Android

Android O continues to be a big talking point, and as usual, we throw in a bunch of articles on good practice that may be applicable to all Java developers.

• Android O: Notification Channels, Background Limits, PIP and More
• Hidden Gems of Android O
• Android O and the Implicit Broadcast Ban (sounds like a Harry Potter book)|
• Test Driving away Coupling in Activities
• Squeezing Performance from SQLite: Insertions
• Android Things Brings TensorFlow-Based Machine Learning and Computer Vision to IoT Devices
• Don’t put view != null checks in your Presenters
• Finally understanding how references work in Android and Java

Design and Architecture

This month, we have a mix of OO design patterns, approaches like Domain Driven Design and Test Driven Design, and take a look at a critique of OO to understand not only its strengths but its weaknesses.

• Why OO Sucks by Joe Armstrong (worth reading to be reminded of differences in approaches to design)
• ZeroTurnaround’s Java Web Frameworks Index
• A Crystal Ball to Prioritize Technical Debt in Monoliths or Microservices
• New Distributed Primitives for Developers (or: How containers have changed the way a developer thinks)
• Does TDD Harm Architecture? (spoiler: not if you do it right, apparently)
• Why Should I Write Getters and Setters?
• Domain Analysis by Color Modeling
• Aggregate Pattern
• Factory Method vs. Simple Factory (patterns are well and good, but it’s better to understand how to refactor to use them)
• Object Oriented Tricks: #1 The Art of Command Query Separation (see also: Refactoring – Separate Query from Modifier)
• Object Oriented Tricks: #2 Law of Demeter

Performance

It’s harder to find the time to watch presentations than to skim documents, but QCon London had some great presentations on performance that have just been published and well worth a look:

• Async or Bust!? – Todd Montgomery (video)
• High Performance Managed Languages – Martin Thompson (or: when is Java better than C/C++) (video)
• Continuous Performance Testing – Mark Price (video)
• Latency Sensitive Microservices – Peter Lawrey (video)
• Performance Testing in Java – Ix-chel Ruiz & Andres Almiray (video)
• Want to Know What’s in a GC Pause? Go Look at the GC Log (article)

Events

JetBrains is going to be at a number of events in May. Come and say hello, ask us questions, or give feedback at our booth:

• 10-11 May: OSCON, Austin (no booth, Hadi Hariri is giving a workshop on Kotlin)
• 11-12 May: DevoxxUK, London (no booth, Trisha Gee is presenting a BoF and a talk)
• 15-19 May: SDD London (no booth, Hadi is presenting)
• 17 May: Java Day, Tokyo
• 17-19 May: GeeCon, Krakow
• 17-19 May: J on the Beach, Malaga (no booth, Trisha is presenting)
• 18-19 May: Spring I/O, Barcelona
• 30 May – 2 June: Scala Days, Copenhagen

And Finally

• IntelliJ IDEA 2017.1.2 update is available
• Which means the 2017.1.3 EAP is open, but more excitingly…
• The 2017.2 EAP is here!
• Most of the readers of Java Annotated won’t need this, but the Running IntelliJ IDEA for the First Time video tutorial has been updated, feel free to share.