There’s been a lot of good improvements since 8 for sure. Nothing individually mind blowing, but together they make the language a lot more agile and enjoyable to work with:
- Records (immutable objects, basically named tuples)
- Switch expressions
- Pattern matching and record patterns (coming in Java 21)
- Text blocks (multiline strings)
- “var” for variable creation instead of the full type name
- Virtual threads and other Project Loom enhancements
- Improved tooling, including jshell, a REPL built into the JDK
- Records (immutable objects, basically named tuples)
- Switch expressions
- Pattern matching and record patterns (coming in Java 21)
- Text blocks (multiline strings)
- “var” for variable creation instead of the full type name
- Virtual threads and other Project Loom enhancements
- Improved tooling, including jshell, a REPL built into the JDK