Java 7 Has Closures – Overall Closure Confusion Continues

Will and should Java 7 have closures has been a topic for heated debate & discussion for quite some time now. It now looks like the decision has been made, however how closures will be included and used in Java 7 is still uncertain. While the ‘if’ debate seems to have been settled, the debate & confusion as regards how, what, when should closures be added to the Java language continues.

Mark Reinhold has announced that JDK 7 will have Closures. With the inclusion of this much debated feature, JDK 7 schedule will be extended until around September 2010.

Joseph D. Darcy, lead engineer of Project Coin, which aims to make small language changes for Java 7, has confirmed that the next version of the language will include some kind of “lightweight” Closures.

src – infoq

Cay Horstmann  notes that the closure proposal has been updated at javac.info and considering the technical nature of it, Cay has put down some use cases for it.

The pro closures voices have been loud & have pushed hard for the inclusion for several years. However will Java developers at large understand and adopt closures is anybody’s guess.