Java SE 8 will see its General Availability release next Monday, March 18. Although Project Jigsaw won’t make the cut, the release is notable for adding support for lambda expressions and virtual extension methods.

As we reported back in January at the Final Release Candidate stage, Oracle was determined that Java 8 would not suffer further slippage.

JDK 8 release manager Mathias Axelsson told the openJDK newsgroup that “only showstoppers (P1) are being considered for fixing in the initial JDK 8 release. Non-showstopper bugs will be deferred to a later release in order to ensure we keep to the JDK 8 schedule and can ship on March 18.”

The reason behind the delay from the previously planned date of September 2013 was a focus on fixing security issues but it was the two ambitious features Project Lambda and Project Jigsaw, both originally been billed part of Java SE 7, that had previously made it slip its 2012 target.

In a post on The Java Source, Tori Wieldt of Oracle’s Java team said that the need to get Project Lambda into this version was an important goal that has now been met. Project Lambda adds support for lambda expressions and virtual extension methods, opening up possibilities for improved multicore support by enabling internal iteration idioms.

Project Jigsaw, which was also originally planned for inclusion in JDK 8 and which would have added support for modularity, was postponed until Java SE 9 back in July 2012.

There will be a webcast about the launch of Java 8 by Mark Reinhold, Chief Architect of Oracle’s Java Platform Group, on March 25.The event will include a live Twitter Q&A on Java SE 8’s new features, and a live chat with Twitter CIO Adam Messinger. There will also be a panel discussion on Java 8 and the Internet of Things (IoT) with Peter Utzschneider (VP Product Management, Oracle), Geoff Lees (Sr VP, Freescale Semiconductor, Ltd.), Charlene Marini (VP Marketing, ARM), and Matt Eichenberger (Dir. Business Development, Qualcomm). You can sign up for it here if you don't already have an Oracle account.

Jigsaw Shelved Until Java 9

Java Is Top Attack Target