JDK 9: General Availability

[Volker Simonis]

On Thu, Sep 21, 2017 at 9:21 PM,  <mark.reinhold at oracle.com> wrote:
> I'm pleased -- nay, thrilled! -- to announce that JDK 9 is now Generally
> Available.  We've identified no P1 bugs since we promoted build 181 seven
> weeks ago so that is the official GA release, ready for production use.
>
> GPL'd binaries from Oracle are available here:
>
>   http://jdk.java.net/9
>
> (There are links on that page to Oracle's commercial binaries for those
> who are interested.)  I'm sure that binaries from other implementors will
> be available in short order.
>

Hi Mark,

on the one side I'm really happy to see that Java 9 has finally been
released (with some of our contributions inside :) On the other hand
however, I'm a little sad because I know for sure that the released
version doesn't pass all of the current TCK 9 tests (but unfortunately
I'm not allowed to say you which ones - at least not publicly :) So
either Oracle cheated (which I don't believe), or they run the tests
with a different "Exclude List", which isn't fair either.

But I don't write this mail to blame anybody. Instead, the real intent
is to urge you and Oracle to finally open source the TCK and make it
available along side the OpenJDK reference implementation. Only if the
TCK will be developed openly and in parallel with the reference
implementation, we will have a transparent way of discussing and
improving the conformance tests and only then it will be possible to
transparently certify one's own implementation as well as verifying
the implementation of others being standards conforming.

Finally, having an open TCK is even more important with the new,
six-monthly release cycle and the release of the new Eclipse OpenJ9
version of Java [1] which gives the users an even bigger choice
between various Java SE implementations. I think an open Java SE TCK
will be crucial here to ensure the stability of the Java platform and
prevent fragmentation.

Thank you and best regards,
Volker

[1] http://www.eclipse.org/openj9/

> The key feature of this release is, of course, Project Jigsaw, about
> which I've written a bit more over on my blog:
>
>   https://mreinhold.org/blog/jigsaw-complete
>
> Jigsaw is not, however, the only feature!  There are many other excellent
> additions and improvements including, but not limited to:
>
>   Improved Process API           http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/102
>   HTTP/2 Client (incubating)     http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/110
>   Variable Handles               http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/193
>   JShell Read-Eval-Print Loop    http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/222
>   Javadoc Search                 http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/225
>   Linux/AArch64 Port             http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/237
>   Marlin Graphics Renderer       http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/265
>   Collection Factories           http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/269
>   Enhanced Deprecation           http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/277
>   Linux/s390x Port               http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/294
>   Ahead-of-Time Compilation      http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/295
>
> The complete list of features is on the JDK 9 Project page:
>
>   http://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk9/
>
> Thank you to everyone who contributed to JDK 9, whether directly or
> indirectly.  It's been a long road, but it will have been worth it.
> This release lays a strong foundation for the future of Java.
>
> - Mark