Java 7

The Java language has undergone several changes since JDK 1.0 as well as numerous additions of classes and packages to the standard library. Since J2SE 1.4, the evolution of the Java language has been governed by the Java Community Process (JCP), which uses Java Specification Requests (JSRs) to propose and specify additions and changes to the Java platform. The language is specified by the Java Language Specification (JLS); changes to the JLS are managed under JSR 901.

In addition to the language changes, much more dramatic changes have been made to the Java Class Library over the years, which has grown from a few hundred classes in JDK 1.0 to over three thousand in J2SE 5. Entire new APIs, such as Swing and Java2D, have been introduced, and many of the original JDK 1.0 classes and methods have been deprecated. Some programs allow conversion of Java programs from one version of the Java platform to an older one (for example Java 5.0 backported to 1.4) (see Java backporting tools).

After the Java 7 release, Oracle promised to go back to a 2-year release cycle. However, in 2013, Oracle announced that they would delay Java 8 by one year, in order to fix bugs related to Java security.

Java 8 is the only publicly supported version, while after public support periods of older versions has ended, non-public updates have been issued for Java 7 and earlier.

The first version was released on January 26, 1996 and called Oak. The first stable version, JDK 1.0.2, is called Java 1.

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