Maintenance Review of Java SE 7 Platform (336)

[Iris Clark]

Hi.

A few critical issues in the Java SE 7 Platform (JSR 336) [0] have been
identified.  To resolve them, there will be Maintenance Review [1] for the
following updates:

  - Verification of a failed invokespecial call outside an <init> method
    should be corrected

  - Verification of a failed invokespecial call inside an <init> method should
    be corrected

(These issues are also being addressed in the Java SE 8 Platform (JSR 337)
[2].)

There will be no change to the values returned by the system properties
java.specification.version and java.vm.specification.version.  They will
continue to report "1.7.0".  If an application needs to identify the release,
the system property java.version may be used.

Oracle will initiate the Maintenance Review by early February and aim for
completion in March.  After the Maintenance Review has completed, and assuming
the Maintenance Review Ballot succeeds, Oracle will produce a Maintenance
Release [3] which includes an updated Specification and RI only.  This Release
is expected March 2015.

Thanks,
iris

[0] https://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=336
[1] https://jcp.org/en/procedures/jcp2#5.2
[2] http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/jdk8u-dev/2015-January/002948.html
[3] https://jcp.org/en/procedures/jcp2#5.3