The Future of Java: Trends and Predictions

Everyone speaks about Cloud technology in their daily routine. As cloud computing continues to dominate the tech industries, Java’s future is increasingly tied to cloud-native development.

Leading this trend are frameworks like Spring Boot and MicroProfile, which allow developers to build applications based on microservices that can scale up and survive failures. The world of Java programming also has been changing due to Kubernetes and the growing popularity of serverless architectures, making it lighter weight and more prepared for the container era thereby ensuring its continued relevance in building cloud-native applications. It remains a viable option for sure!

// Code Snippet: Spring Boot Microservice
@RestController
public class HelloController{

    @GetMapping("/app/hello")
    public String hello(){
        return "Hello, Cloud-Native Java!!";
    }
}

The above-given example demonstrates how easy it is to build a microservice endpoint using Spring Boot. It can be seen that Java behaves like a cloud-native since it interacts together with Docker and Kubernetes which are considered modern application architectures, which are also adopted by small businesses in IT industries too.

Right now everybody is talking about Artificial intelligence and Machine learning, even kids love such technologies.

If we see — Many industries are being disrupted by machine learning and artificial intelligence, and Java is not left behind. Although Python and R rule today’s ML (Machine Learning) landscape, Java is a good fit for enterprise-level machine learning because it does well in terms of performance as well as scalability.

Deeplearning4j and Apache Mahout libraries are indicating the integration of Java into the ML ecosystem. With the growing maturity of these libraries, we can anticipate seeing more programming using Java elsewhere than before in smart system design work. We can expect to see Java playing a more important role in the development of intelligent systems.

// Code Snippet: Simple Neural Network with Deeplearning4j
MultiLayerConfiguration conf = new NeuralNetConfiguration.Builder()
    .seed(123)
    .activation(Activation.RELU)
    .weightInit(WeightInit.XAVIER)
    .updater(new Adam(0.001))
    .list()
    .layer(new DenseLayer.Builder().nIn(784).nOut(1000).build())
    .layer(new OutputLayer.Builder(LossFunctions.LossFunction.NEGATIVELOGLIKELIHOOD)
           .activation(Activation.SOFTMAX)
           .nOut(10).build())
    .build();

MultiLayerNetwork model = new MultiLayerNetwork(conf);
model.init();

Here is an example code snippet for configuring a basic neural network using Deeplearning4j. As far as it is concerned, we do expect that they will evolve towards being more “out-of-the-box” solutions and integration with popular data science tools in Java ML libraries with better Efficiency and performance than Python is providing right now!

Concurrency in Java development has always been a struggle since we all started learning it. Project Loom aims to make this simpler by introducing lightweight user-mode threads — which are known as fibers.

This innovation will guarantee that concurrent programming is faster and less prone to errors, it will be more efficient as well. Enabling numerous coexisting fibers, project loom could provide great improvements in Java application performances especially in high concurrency environments as well. As it develops further, Project Loom may redefine how programmers approach multitasking in Java.

// Code Snippet: Using Project Loom Fibers
public class FiberExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Fiber<Void> fiber = Fiber.schedule(() -> {
            System.out.println("Hello from Fiber!");
        });
        fiber.join();
    }
}

This example shows how fibers can be used simply. Project Loom’s fibers are expected to provide a more powerful and efficient alternative to traditional threads, which will make it easier to write scalable and responsive applications in the near future.

For any programming language, cyber threats are now becoming very sophisticated; Security is therefore a top priority for its designers in this regard for any programming language.

Java has always had strong security features, but the language continues to evolve and meet modern security challenges, Java is more concerned about Security from those of 20+ years ago when it was launched.

The future releases would include more powerful cryptographic algorithms, better secure coding practices, and improved protection against common vulnerabilities like injection attacks.

Project Panama: Interconnecting JVM and native code — aims to improve the interaction between native code and Java, which will also necessitate improved security measures to prevent exploits.

// Code Snippet: Secure Coding with Java
public class SecureApplication {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String userInput = getUserInput(); // Assume this is a user input
        String safeInput = sanitizeInput(userInput);
        System.out.println(safeInput);
    }

    private static String sanitizeInput(String input) {
        return input.replaceAll("[^a-zA-Z0-9]", "");
    }
}

The above example depicts basic input sanitization as it is a crucial step in preventing injection attacks. As Java evolves you can see more sophisticated security libraries and frameworks are expected to emerge.

The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) acts as the backbone of the Java ecosystem, and it continues to evolve. JVM has become an all-purpose platform for developers because it supports several languages such as Kotlin, Scala, and Groovy — which has made it a versatile platform for all developers.

Improving its performance in terms of speed, reducing startup time, and Optimizing memory management, future enhancements, etc. will be a priority challenge of the JVM.

Furthermore, The rise of GraalVM will widen the capabilities of JVM since it has a high-performance polyglot virtual machine. For example, GraalVM supports ahead-of-time compilation and native image generation, etc. — Which offers promising performance benefits for Java Applications.

// Code Snippet: GraalVM Native Image
native-image -jar myapplication.jar

The above-given command demonstrates how to compile a java application into a native executable using GraalVM. This technology promises to significantly improve application startup time, and reduce memory footprint, making it ideal for cloud-native and microservice architectures, etc.

Kotlin — which is a statically typed language that runs on JVM itself, which has seen more popularity in the Android development community.

While Java remains the dominant language due to its brevity in scripting along with null safety features and interoperability with Java making it a priority among many developers; hence influencing the ecosystem around Java more and more frameworks and tools are expected that can support both Java and Kotlin.

As a result, Kotlin’s presence and influence on the Java ecosystem is growing.

// Code Snippet: Kotlin Interoperability
fun main() {
    val javaClass = JavaClass()
    javaClass.javaMethod()
}

The above-given Kotlin snippet shows interoperability with Java classes. It will make it a versatile choice for modern applications.

Java’s strength is its vibrant and active community and powered by Apache makes it a huge community all over the world I believe. The OpenJDK project and JCP (Java Community Process) have been playing a major important role in shaping the language’s evolution. As Java moves forward, community-driven development continues to play a crucial role.

Java adopted 6 Month release cycle just like Angular development, which allowed for more rapid innovation, and good lessons. This trend is likely to continue as the community is playing an active role in determining Java’s future in the right direction.

Java is all time evergreen technology, and you can see many People who are using Android phones — they are already supporting Java.

Java has been evolving to provide for modern developers’ requirements ranging from cloud-native applications, machine learning, and advanced security.

These are expected to revolutionize the language and make it more efficient as well as versatile with the introduction of Project Loom and the continuing evolution of JVM.

As Java continues to grow its ecosystem supported by a strong community, this will remain one of the important languages in the software development world for quite some time for sure! Whether you are already a seasoned developer or a Beginner in Java, these trends and predictions highlight the exciting opportunities that lie ahead.

© 2024 — Author Rakshit Shah

Originally published on 9Mood, also published on Medium.

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