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Discussion on: 20 Reasons to Move On from Java 8

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard

Meanwhile Android is still blocked at Java 7.5, slowing down the whole ecosystem!

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delta456 profile image
Swastik Baranwal

They switched to Kotlin sadly.

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thefern profile image
Fernando B 🚀

Kotlin still runs on JVM fyi.

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard

The kotlin compiler has to target Java 8 bytecode because of Android. It would be more efficient it it could target newer JVM.

Kotlin programmers leverage Java libraries all the time, and those are stuck in Java 8 if they want to support Android.

Tldr: both Java and Kotlin devs would be better off if the Android framework team stopped slowing down progress of Java and the JVM.

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thefern profile image
Fernando B 🚀

Have not got caught up in the Google vs Oracle debacle but newer versions of Java now require enterprise licensing. Is the reason why we have "open jdk". Looks to me like Oracle wants to cash in big time.

The slow down could be merely a legal issue, but that's just my guess.

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Julian Jupiter

But Java is still there. And Kotlin uses JVM. Android does not leverage on much of Java 8. People complain of Java's verbosity and yet Google does not push newer JVM. Since Android M, Android has been using OpenJDK, GPL-licensed, so the case between Oracle and Google should not matter in using newer JVM version.

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard • Edited

(edit: misunderstanding from my part)

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julianjupiter profile image
Julian Jupiter

Read my comment again as to which I'm referring to when I said "should not matter".

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard • Edited

Switching to kotlin is good IMHO,
But it's in no way a valid reason to slow down progress on the Java/JVM side.

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