Java 8

Let's discuss about Java 8. This may not seem that strange until you realize that Java SE 8 was released in March 2014 and that the current Java version, released in September 2021, is Java 17. Now, Question raised, why did we want to discuss such an old version of Java?

The last 7 years have seen some rapid changes in the way new versions of the Java Development Kit is deployed and maintained. But, Java 8 was a revolutionary release of the world’s #1 development platform. It includes a huge upgrade to the Java programming model and a coordinated evolution of the JVM, Java language, and libraries. Java now has a fast channel, every six months, and a slow channel, every three years. Each third-year release is called an LTS release. Java 8 support is available till December 2030. Even, Java 11 support available till September 2026 and Java17 support is available till September 2029. That why Java 8 is still remain industry standard for several years.

What is LTS release

It is absolutely crazy to think about keeping several applications or several servers up to date with the newest Java release, especially when 9 version have come out in as many years by the end of 2021. That is why the concept of an LTS was established. A Java LTS (long-term support) release is a version of Java that will remain the industry standard for several years. To give you an example of this, Java 8 was released in 2014, it will continue to receive updates until 2020, and extended support will end by 2030.

Programming Paradigms

Why, I am taking about programming paradigm? Because, We all know Java is Object Oriented Programming language. But, Java 8 is "Hybrid" that combine Object Oriented and functional paradigm. So, We need to understand about programming paradigm.

The Programming Paradigm refers to a style of programming. It does not refer to a specific language, but rather it refers to the way you program.

There are two major programming paradigms:

  • Imperative Programming Paradigms

  • Declarative Programming Paradigms

Imperative Programming Paradigms

The paradigm consists of several statements, and after the execution of all of them, the result is stored. It’s about writing a list of instructions to tell the computer what to do step by step. In this programming, We tell what to do and how to do both step by step. Before Java 8, We write code in imperative programming way.

  • Procedural Programming Paradigm

  • Object-oriented Programming Paradigm

  • Parallel Processing Paradigm

Declarative Programming Paradigms

Declarative programming is a style of building programs that expresses the logic of a computation without talking about its control flow. In this programming, We just tell what to do. Not how to do. After Java 8, Java is start to support this declarative way.

  • Logic programming paradigm

  • Functional programming paradigm

  • Database processing approach

Programming paradigms reduce the complexity of programs. Every programmer must follow a paradigm approach when implementing their code. If you're a beginner, I would like to suggest learning object-oriented programming and functional programming first. Understand their concepts and try to apply them in your projects.

Now, we need to understand, Java 8 is "Hybrid" that combine Object Oriented and functional paradigm.

Functional or Declarative Programming

In functional programming, we think and code in terms of functions. Functional Programming is a form of programming in which you can pass functions as parameters to other functions and also return them as values.

Concepts of functional programming

  • Higher-Order Functions (HOP): A higher order function is a function that takes a function as an argument, or returns a function as output.

  • First-Class Functions : Functional programming languages functions are objects. That means that you can create an "instance" of a function, as have a variable reference that function instance, just like a reference to a String, Map or any other object. The names of functions do not have any special status. they are treated like ordinary variables with a function type.

  • Immutability (Variables are Immutable)

  • Clojures : Clojure is designed to be a hosted language, sharing the JVM type system, GC, threads etc. All functions are compiled to JVM bytecode. Clojure is a great Java library consumer, offering the dot-target-member notation for calls to Java. Clojure supports the dynamic implementation of Java interfaces and classes.

  • Method Curry: Method Currying is a concept of breaking a function with many arguments into many functions with single argument in such a way, that the output is same

  • Partial Applied Functions: Having partially applied functions means we don’t have to have all the parameters at one time. Instead we can gather bits of information as we go and when we have all the required information we finally compute our result. Partially applied functions also provide great flexibility in composing new functions

We will discuss in detail about all concept when we start to programing in Java 8. Currently, we just need to understand the term of functional programing .