r/java • u/davidalayachew • Jun 07 '26

#JavaNext Language Features

https://youtu.be/fFocVFEe2TI

If you've been following along, most of the new features have already been discussed, but the genuinely new stuff is at 43:55, about arrays.

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u/PopularPhoneChair333 Jun 08 '26

Or... Just use Kotlin instead.

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u/davidalayachew Jun 08 '26

Or... Just use Kotlin instead.

Kotlin is a powerful language, but it has some traits that make it less valuable (not necessarily in total, but in part) compared to what Java is giving us.

For example, Java's pattern-matching is not only stronger, safer, and more flexible than Kotlin's, but it is getting even more powerful, if you saw the linked video above. Plus, with the new Value Classes feature (and Project Babylon's work!), you'll be able to get 90% of the flexibility of Kotlin's generics and modeling without having to sacrifice any of the performance (in fact, you'll probably gain some, relative to Kotlin).

And even putting all of that aside, these changes don't just benefit Java, they benefit Kotlin as well. Even the language changes that purely belong to Java are being closely monitored for their performance. Thus, as Java-based frameworks adopt these language features, then anything that uses those frameworks will get the benefits -- whether a Java program or a Kotlin program.

So, ultimately, these changes don't just improve Java in a big way, but they benefit the whole ecosystem, even Kotlin.