Unboxing Java 26 for Developers - Inside Java Newscast #108

Hey Java developers, Java 26 is coming out on March 17th, which you can watch live from our Java 1 keynote live stream right here on the Java channel. Or why not see in person and attend Java 1 yourself? Tickets are still on sale. Check out the description for more. Anyways, in this episode of the Inside Java newscast, let's review all the changes coming in Java 26 that will impact developers. If you're more on the operations or security side of things, we also publish articles both that are available on insight on Java. Links in the description. All right, let's get started. There were 10 jeeps JDK enhancement proposals that were included in Java 26. Four of the Jeeps were adding or updating a feature. Jeb 500 prepares to make final mean final. As the name of this Jeep suggests, final doesn't truly mean final. And through deeper infection, final fields can be mutated. With this Jeep, when a final field is mutated, a warning message will be printed. The goal is to eventually make it so such behavior is impossible by default. This is part of the integrity by default suite of changes, which you can learn more about by watching this presentation by Ron Presler. The Jeep introduces two new JVM arguments. enable final field mutation which can take a list of modules for allowing final fields to be mutated in those modules and an illegal final field mutation which can be allowed warn debug and deny. Warren will initially be the default value with the goal to make it deny in a future release. Jeb 516 adds AOT object caching with any GC. This will allow ZG garbage collector users to benefit from the AOT features introduced in Java 24 and 25. Jeb 517 introduces the HTP3 to the HTP client. This only adds support for HTB3. The default remains HP2, but developers can opt into using HTP3. HP uses a transport protocol QYC or quick instead of TCP that HP1.1 and 2 uses. This does introduce some complexities when working with HP3 servers. If you'd like to learn more about this and other changes come to the HP client in Java 26, check out my article on this subject on inside Java. link in the description. Jeep 522 improves G1 throughput by reducing the amount of synchronization points required with application threads. There is only one Jeep removing a feature. Jeep 504 removing the Apple API. End of an era. Five of the Jeeps are preview or incubator features. Jeep 524 repreviews PIM encodings for cryptographic objects. PIM privacy enhanced mail is a widely used format for storing and sending cryptographic keys, certificates, and other data. This preview introduces several changes such to class names, method, signatures, and more. Check the chip for more details. Jeep 525 brings the structure concurrency API into six preview. The major change here is the addition of a new ontime method to the join or class which will allow the results of completed subtask to be handled while cancelling all remaining unfinished task after an allotted time has elapsed. There are a few other minor changes to method signatures. Check the jeep for details. Jeep 526 is a second preview of lazy constants renamed from stable values which previewed in Java 25. As is often the case when the feature is na renamed, there are a number of changes even beyond the necessary class name and method changes. The goal now is to focus on a higher level use cases and so some lower level API like RL set, set or throw and tet have been removed. There have also been some name changes as well to classes and methods. Check the chip for more details. Jeb 530 repreviews primitive types and patterns instance of and switch for the fourth time with only a couple of small changes. Finally, Jeb 529 reincubers of vector API for the 11th time will remain until Valhalla features begin to be integrated into the mainline release. Before getting into the rest of the changes coming in Java 26, there is one other important note to change to note. When a virtual thread tries to initialize a class already be initialized by another thread, it will now in most cases be unmounted instead of pinned. This should in most cases improve performance. It should also prevent a potential deadlock situation. All right, so let's look at the new features coming in Java 26. Unicode 17 and CLDR48 have been added in Java 26. These updates provide support for nearly 5,000 more characters and how date, time, and numbers are formatted. For more details, check the JBS tickets and Unicode Consortium's release notes. The Java lane process has a new close methods and also now supports autocloable. JDK26 includes support for the JDBC 4.5MR that provides the following updates to the JDBC specification. SQL permission is deprecated for removal. Add the SQL types deck float and JSON to JDBC type Java and types on Java. Enhance the array blob glob and SQL max interface to be autoclosable. Default implementations have been added to the connection and statement classes as well as updates to the behavior of the is simple identifier class. There may be compatibility issues with some JDBC driver implementations. in the following cases. Be sure to check out the JBS ticket as well as your JDBC driver implementation. Number format now supports lenient parsing of minus signs and negative patterns which is enabled by default. This can be disabled by setting set strict and number format to true. The API documentation generated by Java do now features a dark theme. The theme can be switched between default light theme and the new dark theme by the theme indicated by using the system setting using the new theme button in the in the navigation bar. There were a few remove features in Java 26. In anticipation of the future removal of jobs object finalization, the class image input stream impulses have been removed. This should impact only a very small percentage of applications. Be sure to check out the JBS ticket for more details. The method thread.stop has been removed. It has been deprecated since JDK1.2. The JDK built-in support for Infiniband sockets direct protocol SDP on Linux has been removed. STP has been obsolete for many years and is no longer supported. The system property JDK.nio.path use normalization formd added in JDK20 has been removed. It was added to handle a backwards compatibility issues between now obsolete Mac OS file systems. The deprecated XML interchange feature and Java X management model M being descriptor support has been removed. Meaning the classes string constructor and 2XML string method have been removed. The module JDKJS object has been removed. It has been migrated to JFX since Java 24. There are a couple of noteworthy deprecated features for Java 26. Java.net.socker permission has been deprecated for removal as a result of the security manager no longer being supported. The method set performance preferences in Java.NET Net socket and Javanet socket imple and Javanet server socket have been deprecated for removal as they have been no ops since they were added in JDK 1.5. There was one notable issue resolved for developers in Java 26. A fix was made for inner classes of type parameters being emitted as raw types. In this example code before the fix object was being erroneously printed. Now with the fix t is being printed. There are a few other changes developers should make a note of when moving to Java 26. The behavior of print stream and print writer has changed so that when writing to a custom output stream, its status for check error will properly return true when the write method throws an interrupted IO exception. The class file API has been updated to fail eagerly when encountering unrepresentable sub in values such as an unsigned one or two bit value. When such values are encountered, an illegal argument exception will now be thrown instead of returning malformed data. Java.nio.byorder by order is now converted from a class to an enum to allow it to be used in switch switch expressions and elsewhere the language can dispatch on an enum. The class decimal format now uses the algorithm implemented in double tworing and in Java util formatter to format floating point values. This can cause slight differences than with the old algorithm. To help with migration, the property JDK compat decimal format can be set to true to use the old algorithm. The internal representation of native method pointers J method ID has been changed to no longer be a pointer to the J JVM representation of the method. Native code that breaks the abstraction of J method ID to assume this representation will stop working in JDK26. Prior to JDK26, the Java C compiler did not apply a JLS mandated capture conversion when deciding if a method reference is compatible with a given function type. This could lead to the code example being accepted. Now with JDK26, it will be rejected. The JLink tool can be used to assemble a set of modules and or dependencies into a custom runtime image for a different OS architecture or JDK version to the JDK containing the JLink tool. JLink has been updated to be more strict than in previous versions, ensure plugins that transform and optimize do not run into issues when building the image. The Java launcher now rejects source programs with a private no constructor, which matches what the Java launcher does in normal class mode. And that's all the changes for developers in Java 26. Java 26 will be released in just under two weeks on March 17th. Be sure to watch our live stream for the opening of Java 1 right here on the Java YouTube channel. Or if you want to see it live and in person along with all the other great content of Java 1, head over javawan.com and buy a ticket. I'll be sure to see you there. All right, that's it. Happy coding.

Java 26 is getting all packaged up to be shipped worldwide! As with every release of the JDK, there are a number of new features, improvements, changes in behavior, and more that developers should be aware of before upgrading. In this episode of the Inside Java Newscast, we will review all the noteworthy changes coming in Java 26 that will impact developers. Come to *JavaOne 2026* in Redwood City, March 17th-19th, and get $200 off with code J12026YTLFV: https://www.oracle.com/javaone/ Or join our *live streams* : * March 17th, 1600 UTC: "Java for an AI World" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fLCOqpIfI0 * March 18th, 1600 UTC: "Java Next" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaZIlgBVttI * March 19th, 1600 UTC: "Java Together… The Power of You" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skc-nIFS-hs ~~~~Resources~~~~ Java 26 for DevOps: https://inside.java/2026/03/02/jdk-26-rn-ops/ HTTP Client Updates in Java 26: https://inside.java/2026/03/04/jdk-26-http-client/ JDK Enhancement Proposals (JEPs): - JEP 500 - Prepare to Make Final Mean Final - https://openjdk.org/jeps/500 - JEP 504 - Remove the Applet API - https://openjdk.org/jeps/504 - JEP 516 - Ahead-of-Time Object Caching with Any GC - https://openjdk.org/jeps/516 - JEP 517 - HTTP/3 for the HTTP Client API - https://openjdk.org/jeps/517 - JEP 522 - G1 GC: Improve Throughput by Reducing Synchronization - https://openjdk.org/jeps/522 - JEP 524 - PEM Encodings of Cryptographic Objects (Second Preview) - https://openjdk.org/jeps/524 - JEP 525 - Structured Concurrency (Sixth Preview) - https://openjdk.org/jeps/525 - JEP 526 - Lazy Constants (Second Preview) - https://openjdk.org/jeps/526 - JEP 529 - Vector API (Eleventh Incubator) - https://openjdk.org/jeps/529 - JEP 530 - Primitive Types in Patterns, instanceof, and switch (Fourth Preview) - https://openjdk.org/jeps/530 JDK Bug Systems (JBS) Tickets: - JDK-8371470 - Java Launcher does not fail when running compact java-file with private no-arg constructor - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8371470 - JDK-8346944 - Update Unicode Data Files to 17.0.0 - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8346944 - JDK-8354548 - Update CLDR to Version 48.0 - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8354548 - JDK-8364361 - [process] java.lang.Process should implement Closeable - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8364361 - JDK-8369432 - Add Support for JDBC 4.5 MR - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8369432 - JDK-8363972 - Lenient parsing of minus sign pattern in DecimalFormat/CompactNumberFormat - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8363972 - JDK-8342705 - Add dark mode for docs - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8342705 - JDK-8356557 - Update CodeSource::implies API documentation and deprecate java.net.SocketPermission class for removal - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8356557 - JDK-8366577 - Deprecate java.net.Socket::setPerformancePreferences - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8366577 - JDK-8277585 - Remove the terminally deprecated finalize() method from javax.imageio.stream APIs - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8277585 - JDK-8368226 - Remove Thread.stop - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8368226 - JDK-8366575 - Remove SDP support - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8366575 - JDK-8366911 - (fs) Remove support for normalizing file names to Unicode normalized form D (macOS) - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8366911 - JDK-8351413 - Remove XML interchange in java.management/javax/management/modelmbean/DescriptorSupport - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8351413 - JDK-8359760 - Remove the jdk.jsobject module - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8359760 - JDK-8357653 - Inner classes of type parameters emitted as raw types in signatures - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8357653 - JDK-8370387 - Remove handling of InterruptedIOException from java.io classes - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8370387 - JDK-8361614 - Missing sub-int value validation in the Class-File API - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8361614 - JDK-8361635 - Missing List length validation in the Class-File API - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8361635 - JDK-8362637 - Convert java.nio.ByteOrder to an enum - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8362637 - JDK-8362448 - Make use of the Double.toString(double) algorithm in java.text.DecimalFormat - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8362448 - JDK-8268406 - Deallocate jmethodID native memory - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8268406 - JDK-8369517 - Compilation mismatch for equivalent lambda and method reference - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8369517 - JDK-8347831 - Re-examine version check when cross linking - https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8347831 ~~~~ Chapters ~~~~ 0:00 Intro 0:40 JEP 500 1:38 JEP 516 1:48 JEP 517 2:19 JEP 522 2:25 JEP 504 2:37 JEP 524 2:56 JEP 525 3:19 JEP 526 3:47 JEP 530 3:55 JEP 529 4:25 New Features 6:08 Removed Features 7:27 Deprecated Features 8:00 Notable Issues Resolved 8:21 Other Issues 10:46 Outro Tags: #Java #Java26 #JDK26 #OpenJDK