Java 16 - Making Preview Features Permanent

Java 16, officially released on March 16, 2021, delivers another round of powerful features — many of which solidify Java’s modernization journey. This release finalizes long-awaited capabilities like Records and Pattern Matching, while adding JVM enhancements and platform improvements.

Here are some of the highlights:

Records & Pattern Matching for instanceof Now Permanent Features

We learned about these features in prior posts. They are no longer preview and are now permanent.

Unix Domain Socket Channels

Java 16 adds support for Unix-domain socket channels to java.nio.channels, enhancing IPC (inter-process communication) on Unix-like systems (Linux, macOS).

Faster than TCP for local communications and widely used in system programming.

UnixDomainSocketAddress address = UnixDomainSocketAddress.of("/tmp/socket");

SocketChannel channel = SocketChannel.open(address);

🛠️ Migration of JDK to GitHub – JEP 357

Not a language feature, but an important change: the entire OpenJDK source code moved to GitHub, making it more accessible to contributors and developers worldwide.

🔗 Repo: https://github.com/openjdk