Maintenance Reviews of Java SE 8 and 11 Platform JSRs

[Iris Clark]

A small number of critical issues pertaining to support for external standards
have been identified in the Java SE 8 and Java SE 11 Platforms. To resolve
these issues for future JDK updates, Oracle plans to conduct Maintenance
Reviews of the corresponding Platform JSRs (JSR 337 [1] and JSR 384 [2]). The
issues are:

  - Eras in the Japanese imperial calendar are tied to the reign of the
    emperor.  On 1 May 2019, a new era will be introduced with the ascension
    of the new emperor.  The specification of java.time.chrono.JapaneseEra
    should be modified to allow for future eras [3] and the new era symbol
    should be added to java.lang.Character. [4]

  - The java.lang.Character specification should permit
    implementation-specific additions to be merged from the "Currency Symbols"
    Unicode Block (U+20A0 - U+20CF) to support new currencies such as
    Bitcoin. [5]

  - As industry-wide cryptographic standards evolve, the set of algorithms and
    protocols supported by the security APIs needs to change.  The Java
    Security Standard Algorithm Names specification [6] defines the set of
    String names referencing these standards (e.g. "SHA-256", "TLSv1.3").  The
    specification should explicitly allow the addition of names for
    algorithms/protocols defined in later releases. [7]

The values returned by the system properties java.specification.version and
java.vm.specification.version will be unchanged.  If an application needs to
identify this release, the system property java.version may be used.

Oracle will initiate the Maintenance Reviews in January and aim for completion
in March.  After the Maintenance Reviews have completed, and assuming that the
Maintenance Review Ballots succeed, Oracle will produce updated
Specifications, RIs, and TCKs.  We expect the Maintenance Releases in
April 2019.

Thanks,
Iris

[0]: https://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk/11/spec/
[1]: https://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk8/spec/
[2]: https://jcp.org/en/procedures/jcp2#3.6.2
[3]: https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8212942
[4]: https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8211739
[5]: https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8215305
[6]: https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/11/docs/specs/security/standard-names.html
[7]: https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8215320