History
Java is a versatile, object-oriented programming language that was first released by Sun Microsystems (acquired by Oracle Corporation in 2010) in 1995. Its development started in 1991 by James Gosling, Mike Sheridan, and Patrick Naughton, who were working on a project named “Green” at Sun Microsystems. The language was initially designed for use in embedded systems but quickly evolved to become one of the most popular programming languages for a wide range of applications, including web development, enterprise software, mobile applications, and more.
Here is a table with the major versions and their release dates:
| Version | Release Date | Notable Features and Changes |
|---|---|---|
|
Java 1.0 |
January 23, 1996 |
Initial release of Java with the core features of the language. |
|
Java 1.1 |
February 19, 1997 |
Inner classes, JavaBeans, JDBC, RMI, and more API enhancements. |
|
Java 1.2 |
December 8, 1998 |
Introduction of the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE). Swings API, Collections Framework, and JIT (Just-In-Time) compiler. |
|
Java 1.3 |
May 8, 2000 |
HotSpot JVM, Java Sound API, JPDA (Java Platform Debugger Architecture). |
|
Java 1.4 |
February 6, 2002 |
Assertions, Regular Expressions, NIO (New I/O) package, Logging API. |
|
Java 5 |
September 30, 2004 |
Generics, Enhanced for loop, Autoboxing, Annotations, Varargs, Enum. |
|
Java 6 |
December 11, 2006 |
Scripting API, JAXB, Java Compiler API, Pluggable Annotations, GUI enhancements. |
|
Java 7 |
July 28, 2011 |
Switch statement with Strings, Try-with-resources, Diamond Operator, Fork/Join Framework, NIO.2. |
|
Java 8 |
March 18, 2014 |
Lambda expressions, Stream API, Date and Time API (JSR 310), Nashorn JavaScript Engine. |
|
Java 9 |
September 21, 2017 |
Module system (Project Jigsaw), JShell (Java REPL), improved Stream API, and more. |
|
Java 10 |
March 20, 2018 |
Local variable type inference (var keyword), Application Class-Data Sharing (CDS) |
|
Java 11 |
September 25, 2018 |
Launch Single-File Source-Code Programs, HTTP Client API, Epsilon Garbage Collector. |
|
Java 12 |
March 19, 2019 |
Switch Expressions (Preview), Shenandoah Garbage Collector (Experimental). |
|
Java 13 |
September 17, 2019 |
Text Blocks (Preview), ZGC Garbage Collector (Experimental). |
|
Java 14 |
March 17, 2020 |
Records (Preview), Pattern Matching for instanceof (Preview), NUMA-Aware Memory Allocation. |
|
Java 15 |
September 15, 2020 |
Sealed Classes (Preview), Hidden Classes (Preview), ZGC Concurrent Thread-Stack Processing. |
|
Java 16 |
March 16, 2021 |
Records, Pattern Matching for instanceof, Vector API, Foreign Function & Memory API (Incubator). |
|
Java 17 |
September 14, 2021 |
Sealed Classes, Pattern Matching for switch, Strongly Encapsulate JDK Internals. |
Please note that the above table covers only the major releases of Java, and there are also minor updates and patch releases in between. Java is an ever-evolving language, and Oracle and the Java community continue to work on improvements, enhancements, and new features in subsequent versions.