Hey, there are two major Java versions released every year! We don’t have to wait 3 years or so for new features anymore. Isn’t that cool? 😉
Java was supposed “to be slow”. However, Java turns out to evolve so fast, that next releases aren’t just version bumps, but might significantly change the rules of the game. That’s a good reason to check out what’s new in Java.
To name a few changes:
In the previous post we were testing if Java’s Virtual Threads aren’t used in a way that makes them pinned. It’s because we want our Platform Threads (especially those in the ForkJoin Pool Co.) to keep carrying more and more new Virtual Threads, instead of keeping the engine running while VTs are pinned. (At least as long as we can’t provide our own thread pools to carry VTs.)
Spoiler alert: we’re going to use Testcontainers and Toxiproxy today!
During my talks about Java 19 (which have the mandatory part dedicated to Virtual Threads), I’ve been asked: how do I enable Virtual Threads in the JVM? quite a few times.
This question carries an assumption that there’s some kind of switch, which has to be activated or hit to “magically” turn good ol’ Threads into Virtual Threads. AFAICT there is no such thing right now, and I rather doubt there will be one in the future. There is no system property, environment variable or java parameter I know of, that would make Virtual Threads be used instead of Platform Threads. (Sure, to be able to use VTs we need to java --enable-preview, but that applies to all preview features, it’s not VTs specific.)
Let’s be honest: we’ve been waiting for the Virtual Threads quite some time. We’ve been waiting eagerly, we’ve seen names changing (they’re not fibers folks), but here there finally are: Virtual Threads.
Some say the Project Loom is the biggest change Java has seen since version 8, lambdas, and streams. Some say it’s even bigger than that. Discussion aside, they are a huge change, it seems.
I remember how we were excited (I was still at the university back then), that we could finally use some real Threads in Java on Windows. Yet time flies by, the industry has changed, the hardware has changed, the way we build our systems has changed too. While we found ways to bypass the limitations of “one OS thread per one Java thread”, it came with some price: convoluted stack traces and difficult debugging are the first ones that come to mind. Virtual Threads are about to keep us in the boooring, yet easy to grasp thread-per-request model, while unblocking the silicon power down below.
Hey, there are two major Java versions released every year! We don’t have to wait 3 years or so for new features anymore. Isn’t that cool? 😉
Java was supposed “to be slow”. However, Java turns out to evolve so fast, that next releases aren’t just version bumps, but might significantly change the rules of the game. That’s a good reason to check out what’s new in Java.
To name a few changes: