Java
Java ecosystem ships major releases: Groovy 6.0, TornadoVM 7.0, and Maven 4.0 takes shape
A packed week for Java brings stable releases of key frameworks and runtimes, alongside significant progress on OpenJDK's next generation and numerous security patches across the platform.
InfoQ
The Java community delivered a notable set of releases this week, with two major general-availability milestones—Groovy 6.0 and TornadoVM 7.0—joining a flurry of updates across build tools, cloud-native frameworks, and monitoring libraries.
OpenJDK and JDK 28 gain new optimization JEPs#
Three important enhancement proposals moved forward in the JDK roadmap. Ahead-of-Time Code Compilation (JEP 544) progressed to Proposed to Target status for JDK 28, aiming to accelerate startup and warmup by delivering optimized native code immediately at JVM launch. In parallel, the Z Garbage Collector picked up two complementary enhancements: JEP 546 for adaptive heap sizing and JEP 545 for faster memory acquisition, both now at Candidate status. Build 17 of JDK 28 arrived this week with routine bug fixes across multiple components.
Major framework and tool releases bring performance gains#
Apache Groovy 6.0 shipped as a stable release after three release candidates. The version emphasizes lexer and parser performance improvements through character-class optimizations and predicate-free deterministic finite automata, delivering measurable speed gains for code compilation.
TornadoVM 7.0.0 brings new GPU kernel APIs and refined parallel-method handling. The library now offers an additional class alongside the existing TileContext to simplify GPU kernel development in Java, plus guards against intermittent test failures on CUDA backends.
Gradle 9.8.0 added Java 27 daemon and toolchain support, Maven mirror repository reuse, and a notable 45% performance improvement on Windows. Apache Maven 4.0.0-RC7 moved closer to general availability with lock-free async drain writers and concurrent queue optimizations, expected to reach GA "in the coming weeks pending community feedback."
