Tuesday's Java Strategy Keynote presented Oracle's long-term vision for augmented investment and innovation in Java -- from mobile and handheld devices, to the desktop, to the Cloud.

Monday’s Java Technical Keynote showed that the Java platform -- from Java 7 to JavaFX 2.0 to Java EE’s move into the cloud – is alive and moving ahead with the times.

by Janice J. Heiss

As expected, what Mark Reinhold referred to in his blog as "Plan B" represents the direction Oracle is taking with JDK 7. To judge from the responses to his blog, this should be a popular decision.

Here are some basics:

Proposed JDK 7 Features

• InvokeDynamic byte code and supporting features for dynamic languages
• Fork/Join Framework and related concurrency and collections API enhancements for improved multi-threaded Java code
• Small Language Enhancements (most of "Project Coin") for higher developer productivity and cleaner, more concise Java code
• Session Description Protocol (SDP) and Stream Control Transport Protocol (SCTP) support
• New I/O APIs - A flexible filesystem API, and asynchronous I/O
• Support for updated standards - Unicode, localization, security, cryptography, XML and JDBC
• JVM performance improvements

Proposed JDK 8 Features

• Lambda expressions ("closures") for higher developer productivity and better leveraging of multi-core CPUs
• Small language enhancements (Remaining parts of "Project Coin")
• A Java-native module system ("Project Jigsaw") to simplify the construction, packaging, and deployment of applications
• JVM start-up time and ergonomics improvements

I'm sure we'll hear more about his vision for the platform at the General Technical Session today, 9/21, which I'll be covering.

Again, for more details, see JDK 7.