5 Websites all Java Software Engineers must know and use

Java is 28 years old this year. That is a very long time and arguably Java could be considered as “#1 programming language for today’s technology trends” (Source : VDC Research).

The reasons behind Java’s popularity is tied to the 5 core features it continues to guarantee to its users.

1. Performance
2. Scalability
3. Security
4. Compatibility
5. Maintainability

Due to these guarantees Java is considered as the #1 in overall development organizational use. Also there are over 60 Billion active JVMs and over 38 Billion active JVMs in the cloud (Source : VDC Research).

Following are 5 websites all Java Software Engineers must know and use;

1. https://dev.java/ — I recommend this for anyone who is new to Java or having very less experience with it. It provides means to learn, explore, contribute, promote Java as a programming language. It provides how to download, install, learn Java. The best part is that it provides a Playground to try out Java programming language in the browser itself with detailed explanation of each line. This is very good to try out new features of Java (I tried yet to be released Java 22).

https://dev.java/playground/

2. https://inside.java/ — I recommend this for Java Software Engineers with varying experience levels. This is like a one stop, clean, non cluttered source to consume latest trends within Java platform. Everything from Blog posts, Pod casts, etc can be found here to explore and learn Java

3. https://www.jcp.org/ — I recommend this for experienced Java Software Engineers who would like to give back to Java platform. JCP stands for Java Community Process where people from outside of Oracle can propose, approve, implement new features into Java. A new feature can be proposed by means of a JSR (Java Specification Request). There are various levels within this community and you can enter any level until you are comfortable with and move to next level when you are ready.

4. https://wiki.openjdk.org/ — I recommend this for experienced Java Software Engineers who would like to see what is happening in Java landscape not just within Java Programming language. For example one may be using a Framework/Library written using Java and might be interested to know whether that Framework/Library is supported in a certain newer version of Java before migrating. Quality Outreach section in this website provides a detailed and concise state of most Frameworks/Libraries and their compatibility with a specific version of Java. This is a very versatile website with vast amount of information.

https://wiki.openjdk.org/display/quality/Quality+Outreach

5. https://jdk.java.net/ — I recommend this for experienced Java Software Engineers who are interested in early access builds of Java JDKs. As of now Java 24 is not yet officially released but if you are interested you can download it and try out its features. This is very helpful if you are focusing on upgrading your JVM version to keep up with the latest changes and you can measure how much your application running is compatible with the latest version which is not yet released and you can be prepared to go to Production whenit is officially released due to this early access.

Conclusion

Java is a very stable and fast growing programming language for following reasons;

1. 10+ Million developers using it
2. 1.8+ Million questions are asked on Stackoverflow on Java
3. 360+ Java User Groups worldwide
4. 365 Java Champions worldwide
5. 1 Million Java certifications completed as of writing this post

All this stats shows a very bright future for Java and Java Software Engineers.

References

https://www.infoq.com/presentations/java-developer-productivity/