Java JDK (Java Development Kit) Releases Dates and Release Differences

A popular interview question in Java is “what is new in Java version X?”. Is that an intelligent question is debatable. I have summarized below important new features added in each major java release till now. I target to highlight important features added in respective release. Apart from below list of features, every release has enhancements and lots of bug fixes.

The JDK, described here, is for people who want to write their own Java programs. If all you want to do is run them, or browse Applets on the web, you should use the much smaller JRE (Java Runtime Environment) instead. You don’t need both. The JDK includes the JRE.

The JRE, described here, is for people who just want to run Java programs or browse Applets on the web. You must use the much larger JDK if you want to write your own Java programs. You don’t need both.

Future Versions:

Year	Version	Plan to include and enhance concepts
2015?	9.0	better support for multi-gigabyte heaps, better native code integration, and a self-tuning JVM
2017?	10.0	Primitives behave identically to objects. 64-bit arrays and Collections?

Java Version SE 8

Code named Lambda and released on Sep, 2013.

2013-09

1.8

Lambda

New features in Java SE 8

• Closures aka λ lambda expressions.
• Unsigned literals.
• Annotations on Java types.
• Date and time API (To unify Date and Calendar use 1-based months, deal with multihour DST) tight integration with JavaFX.

Java Version SE 7

Code named Dolphin and released on July 28, 2011.

2011-07-28

1.7

Dolphin

New features in Java SE 7

• Strings in switch Statement
• Type Inference for Generic Instance Creation
• Multiple Exception Handling
• Support for Dynamic Languages
• Try with Resources
• Java nio Package
• Binary Literals, underscore in literals
• Diamond Syntax
• Automatic null Handling

Java Version SE 6

Code named Mustang and released on December 11, 2006.

2006-12-12

1.6

Mustang

New features in Java SE 6

• Scripting Language Support
• JDBC 4.0 API
• Java Compiler API
• Pluggable Annotations
• Native PKI, Java GSS, Kerberos and LDAP support.
• Integrated Web Services.
• Lot more enhancements.

J2SE Version 5.0

Code named Tiger and released on September 30, 2004.

2004-09-29

1.5

Tiger

New features in J2SE 5.0

• Generics
• Enhanced for Loop
• Autoboxing/Unboxing
• Typesafe Enums
• Varargs
• Static Import
• Metadata (Annotations)
• Instrumentation

J2SE Version 1.4

Code named Merlin and released on February 6, 2002 (first release under JCP).

2002-02-13	1.4	Merlin
2002-09-16	1.4.1	Hopper (Grasshopper)
2003-06-26	1.4.2	Mantis

New features in J2SE 1.4

• XML Processing
• Java Print Service
• Logging API
• Java Web Start
• JDBC 3.0 API
• Assertions
• Preferences API
• Chained Exception
• IPv6 Support
• Regular Expressions
• Image I/O API

J2SE Version 1.3

Code named Kestrel and released on May 8, 2000.

2000-05-08	1.3	Kestrel
2001-05-17	1.3.1	Ladybird

New features in J2SE 1.3

• Java Sound
• Jar Indexing
• A huge list of enhancements in almost all the java area.

J2SE Version 1.2

Code named Playground and released on December 8, 1998.

1998-12-04	1.2	Playground
1999-03-30	1.2.1	(none)
1999-07-08	1.2.2	Cricket

New features in J2SE 1.2

• Collections framework.
• Java String memory map for constants.
• Just In Time (JIT) compiler.
• Jar Signer for signing Java ARchive (JAR) files.
• Policy Tool for granting access to system resources.
• Java Foundation Classes (JFC) which consists of Swing 1.0, Drag and Drop, and Java 2D class libraries.
• Java Plug-in
• Scrollable result sets, BLOB, CLOB, batch update, user-defined types in JDBC.
• Audio support in Applets.

JDK Version 1.1

Released on February 19, 1997

1997-02-18	1.1	Sparkler
1997-09-12	1.1.4	Sparkler
1997-12-03	1.1.5	Pumpkin
1998-04-24	1.1.6	Abigail
1998-09-28	1.1.7	Brutus
1999-04-08	1.1.8	Chelsea

New features in JDK 1.1

• JDBC (Java Database Connectivity)
• Inner Classes
• Java Beans
• RMI (Remote Method Invocation)
• Reflection (introspection only)

JDK Version 1.0

Codenamed Oak and released on January 23, 1996.

1996-01-23

1.0

Oak?

Oak was a programming language created by James Gosling in 1991, initially for Sun Micro-systems set-top box project. The language later evolved to become Java. The name Oak was used by Gosling after an oak tree that stood outside his office.

Oak was the basis for what Java 1.0 became later, but there were also some differences.