Java 17

Java SE 17 is upon us, and with it comes a whole host of new features and changes. We'll take a look at a few in this article. 

Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNGs) are getting a major update in Java with the release of JEP 356. New interfaces and implementations make it easier to use different algorithms interchangeably and offer better support for stream-based programming. This is a great improvement for Java developers who require randomness in their applications. 

The JDK is constantly evolving and improving, and part of that process is ensuring that internal APIs are properly encapsulated. JEP 403 represents a step in that direction, by removing the –illegal-access flag. This will prevent JDK users from accessing internal APIs, except for critical ones like sun.misc.Unsafe.  

Features developer by Project Panana enable easier access to C libraries from Java code. The Foreign Function and Memory API is eventually due to replace the JNI API. 

  Release notes are here

Calling Native Libraries from Java

A couple of options I've used and seen: 

• Java Native interface - watch out for segfaults! 
• Project Panama - early access
• GraalVM - still really new.
• zt-exec - call the native library as an external process
• remotetea - an old favourite if it's legacy C++ code

Latency Sensitive Microservices

Great talk by by Peter Lawrey regarding latency in micro-services.  https://www.infoq.com/presentations/latency-sensitive-microservices/

How to get GXT explorer running in Eclipse

1. Download the latest jars from http://www.sencha.com/products/extgwt/download/
2. Follow the "setup.txt" create a eclipse project.
3. Add all the folders in samples/**/src as source folder
4. Expand the samples/examples.war into the "war" folder in your eclipse dir
5. Delete the old "gxt.jar" from the WEB-INF/lib and replace with the gxt-2.2.3-gwt22.jar (seems like an old version is bundled with the samples.war)
6. Run As, Web app, explorer.html, cross fingers...

Coherence in the real world

This has really helped in the Coherence projects I've been working on. Nothing quite like real world experience. More resources here.