Can DukeScript Ecosystem Benefit from Java9?

Today we’ve got engaged into particularly interesting discussion: Can DukeScript benefit from Java9? Java9 is feature freezed and it’s release date seem to be unstoppable: thus it is really the right time to look at its features and analyze how an independent and extremely portable project like DukeScript could benefit from the new major Java release. Here are few things that crossed our minds.

Modularity - Meaning Small

DukeScript systems are designed to be heavily portable. They fit into your phone, iPad or even a browser. As such it seams fine that Java9 defines so called java.base module - e.g. the smallest independent deployment unit one can use when bundling a Java9 application. That is indeed good.

On the other hand the smallest unit still has more than three thousand of classes. E.g. it is not as small as it could be: for example when running DukeScript in a browser, it is possible to reduce the application to less than 1000 of classes - so there is still a room for improvement. But at least the Java maintainers are heading in the right direction.

JShell

It is common in the world of browsers that developers have an interactive console: a place to evaluate its queries while the program is running. JShell brings the same possibilities into Java9 and thus also into DukeScript based applications.

In theory we could give you the same console as JavaScript programmers have, but let you code in Java. Let you talk directly to your application: use for example typed JQuery to manipulate with DOM elements.

One question remains: is such feature what you want and need?

Something Else

There is said to be 55 new features in the up-coming release of Java9. We don’t see all of them to directly fit into the charter of DukeScript, but we may be missing something: What is your favorite feature and how it could enhance DukeScript?

Question for You!

How would you like us enhance DukeScript to benefit from Java9 features? Let us know: either by twitter or by participating in the discussion below.

Thanks for helping to make DukeScript better.