Java 7- Making Java Software Development Better

Java has always been a developer’s pet ever since its inception. This object-oriented programming language has a refreshing set of core features and functionalities that make it a favored development platform for thousands, across the globe. The platform is designed in such a manner that it happens to have the least implementation dependencies. It gives developers the freedom to write once, run anywhere, which means a code snippet that is executing well on a given platform, and need not to be rewritten to be run on another platform. With a plethora of advantageous features compiled together, Java has become one of the top-rated languages used to carry out even the most intricate software development projects. This time around, Java software development has become even better! Thanks to amazing new features incorporated in the 7th version update of Java. This latest version from the Java community brings along the gift of jdk7 which saves developers’ time and makes the development outcome highly user-friendly. This article explores the various changes that have been introduced in Java 7 and how useful they are for an offshore Java developer. Let’s take a look. Re-throw: Java 7 is powered by a smart compiler enabled with a broader catch clause. This compiler allows the developers to rethrow from try block, based on throw. This feature was not available in any of the earlier versions of Java language. Simplified Resource Management: In Java 7, the management of resources is automated, which simplifies the process of Java software development. Earlier resource management was confusing and developers often missed out on closing readers, streams etc., thus using catch block to close the same. Strings: This version of Java brings a new type of strings to the surface, which enables the use of switch statement. This string uses primitive enums and types which facilitates the developers to harness the maximum potential of switch functionality. This counters the earlier process in which developers had to check for equals and use strings as keys. Diamond Operator: This is probably the coolest of the feature set introduced in Java 7. It makes Java development simplistic, as developers don’t have to indulge in declaration of types anymore. In the earlier versions, it was essential to use declaration of maps and generics, while specifying types on both sides. Diamond operator helps developers in avoiding specification and declaration needs. Fork and Join: Heavy functions in Java require programmers to perform parallel computing. Fork and Join feature introduced in Java 7 enables developers to distribute their work across various cores and join them once the development task is completed. After all this, they get the final piece of work and the task is simplified as the entire work is divided into smaller segments. Using a pool, all these smaller tasks can be treated individually. Improved Handling: Handling is a common practice in Java development and to carry it out developers need to use multi catching statements for treating individual handles. With Java 7, we don’t need to use catching statement to treat each handle. Using pipe separator, we can add multiple exceptions at a time. Other than the aforementioned changes, various other additions can be noticed in Java 7 such as JLayerPane, file change, more modular, new method for closing URLClassLoader, Null improvements, Numeric literals with underscores, JSR TBD and JSR 203, Open JDK, quickstarter, Multi-catch, New plug-ins, Support for Unicode 5.0, Better protocol, Upgraded class loader architecture, New SDP, New pipeline for Java 2D, compressed pointer, better garbage collector, updated collections and concurrency, multiple virtual machines, better class properties, closures, JSR 308, binding of beans, overloading of operators, Big Decimal syntax and a lot more. These brand new features in Java 7 facilitate better performance of Java apps, make the coding process easier for developers and offer customer-centric benefits. Once Java development process is complete, these apps enhance the productivity of apps and provide support for dynamic languages that make it easier for developers to run the app using other languages.