Java is often criticized because of some degree of conservatism, where major language changes are concerned. However, the recent Java 8 release has done a lot to relieve the worry that Java will remain conservative and frozen in time.

However, there are more changes coming. Java 9 is believed to support some long-awaited features that will possibly take it to a completely new market and level of programming.

In the past, annotations support and generics have caused a revolution in Java programming. The way of thinking was changed, and, while nothing completely new was added to the way Java operates in the low-level design, the high-level design and programming techniques were undoubtedly changed. The result was, for example, a rise in annotation-based frameworks and simpler programming as a whole.

Java 8 has been released with lambda expressions support, type annotations, and parameter reflection for public use. But it was possible to use it since late 2012, at least. It was possible...