Category Archives: Tech

Fosstars: a framework for defining ratings for open source projects

I recently wrote a blog post about a project I have been working on at SAP for a year. The project is called Fosstars. It is an open-source Java-based framework for defining ratings that help to assess security, activity and other properties of open source projects. Currently, Fosstars offers a comprehensive security rating that helps to identify open source components that can be a security risk for an application. The blog post describes how Fosstars work:

https://blogs.sap.com/2021/02/09/fosstars-a-framework-for-defining-ratings-for-open-source-projects/

I am planning to write a few more articles. One is going to talk about the security rating in detail, and another one is going to be about calculating security ratings with Fosstars and GitHub actions.

New Switch Expressions in Java 14

Java 14 is going to be released on March 17, 2020. The new version of Java contains one major update to the Java language: new switch expressions. Let’s see how the new switch expressions can be used, what kind of advantages they offer, and what can potentially go wrong. In the end, you are going to find a tricky question about the switch expressions.

(the article has been published on Medium)

New Switch Expressions in Java 14
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What is new in Java 14?

Java 14 is going to be released on Mar 17th, 2020. Besides ~2400 bug fixes and small enhancements, the new version of Java contains 16 major enhancements which are also called JEPs (Java Enhancement Proposals).

Let’s take a closer look at the major updates in Java 14: new switch expressions, better NullPointerExceptions, improvements in garbage collection, JFR event streaming and more.

(the article has been published on Medium)

What is new in Java 14
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What’s new in Java 13

Java 13 is going to be released on Sep 17th, 2019. Besides ~2300 bug fixes and small enhancements, the new version of Java contains 5 major enhancements which are also called JEPs (Java Enhancement Proposals). Let’s take a closer look at these major updates: text blocks, switch expressions, re-implemented the legacy Socket API, updates to ZGC and dynamic CDS archives.

What is new in Java 13
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What’s new in Java 12

Let’s take a look what is inside Java 12. The new Java release contains less major enhancements than the previous version: 8 JEPs in Java 12 vs 17 JEPs in Java 11. As you of course remember, JEP stands for JDK Enhancement Proposal. Java 11 also had more closed entries in Jira: ~2700 in Java 11 vs ~2400 in Java 12. But it’s only mid of Feb 2019, maybe they can deliver 300 Jira entries by Mar 19th 2019 when Java 12 is planned to be released. Now let’s take a closed look what is in Java 12.

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What’s new in Java 10: Episode 2

Java 10 is coming in March 2018. This release contains quite a lot of enhancements in the JVM. But it looks like JDK users are mostly interested in one particular update in the Java Language – type inference to declarations of local variables with initializers. Besides updates to the Java Language and JVM, Java 10 contains another update which together with the six-month release model has been bothering the Java community for several months.

Here is a digest of the rest of the main features in Java 10 which weren’t covered in the previous post. Enjoy!

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What’s new in Java 10: Episode 1

Java 10 should be released in Mar 2018. It’s going to be the next short-term release after Java 9 which was released in Sep 2017.

After I had left the Java Team at Oracle in the end of 2017, and moved to another side of Atlantic Ocean, I made a New Year’s promise that I’ll keep myself updated about changes in Java at least for a year.

Since Java 10 is coming, it’s time to have a look at the JEPs (Java Enhancement Proposal) targeted to Java 10. Here is a digest of the main features which are planned to be delivered in Java 10. Enjoy!

 

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