For the past several years, the community has watched the slow, inexorable progress of a long-term project within the Java ecosystem: to strongly encapsulate the internals of the Java runtime.
As Ben Evans explains, in Java 8 and before, you could call public methods on any public class, both directly and reflectively. However, after the Java module system arrived, these calls became subject to additional restrictions. Encapsulation of direct access to internal classes means that code is less likely to have errors at runtime because user classes are tightly coupled to the internal implementation of the JDK—and thereby might break when they are run on a different or newer JDK.
In his article, Ben walks you through this project’s milestones and changes beginning with Java 9 and continuing to Java 16—and soon, to Java 17.
Take care, Alan Zeichick Editor in Chief, Java Magazine @zeichick
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