Java Web Development (JSP/Servlets) Services

Introduction

Concurrent programming remains a crucial part of building scalable, responsive Java applications. Over the years, Java has steadily enhanced its multithreaded programming capabilities. This article reviews the evolution of concurrency from Java 8 through Java 21, highlighting important improvements and the impactful addition of virtual threads introduced in Java 21.

Starting with Java 8, the concurrency API saw significant enhancements such as Atomic Variables, Concurrent Maps, and the integration of lambda expressions to enable more expressive parallel programming.

Introduction: Problem Definition and Suggested Solution Idea

This article is a a technical article for Java developers that suggest a solution for a major pain point of analyzing very long stack traces searching for meaningful information in a pile of frameworks related stack trace lines. The core idea of the solution is to provide a capability to intelligently filter out irrelevant parts of the stack trace without losing important and meaningful information. The benefits are two-fold:

1. Making stack trace much easier to read and analyze, making it more clear and concise

A JDK Enhancement Proposal (JEP) is a formal process used to propose and document improvements to the Java Development Kit. It ensures that enhancements are thoughtfully planned, reviewed, and integrated to keep the JDK modern, consistent, and sustainable over time. Since its inception, many JEPs have introduced significant language and runtime features that shape the evolution of Java. One such important proposal, JEP 400, introduced in JDK 18 in 2022, standardizes UTF-8 as the default charset, addressing long-standing issues with platform-dependent encoding and improving Java’s cross-platform reliability.

Traditionally, Java’s I/O API, introduced in JDK 1.1, includes classes like FileReader and FileWriter that read and write text files. These classes rely on a Charset to correctly interpret byte data. When a charset is explicitly passed to the constructor, like in:

In an application meant for concurrent execution need of sharing data (or context) between threads is imperative. The available design choices are to pass the context as method parameter(s) or enable the context to be universally accessible (viz. global variable or equivalent).

While former choice (i.e. context as method argument) is easiest it doesn’t scale well. As the application evolves, the context too grows and thus the method parameters. Moreover, the method is required to accept parameters which aren’t utilized by itself directly but instead some method deep down the call hierarchy. Thus, overall data flow isn’t clean or intuitive. In case the context is mutable any of the callee potentially could corrupt the context. Identifying this rouge behavior is unpleasant at best.

When discussing software development and its history, we often hear quotes emphasizing the importance of testing; however, in practice, we usually prioritize it as the last step, perhaps ahead of documentation.  Without proper testing, ensuring the quality of your software is nearly impossible. Tests work as a safety certification, catching issues early and ensuring that your software behaves as expected. Despite their clear advantages — improved code quality, easier refactoring, and better adaptability for future changes — tests are often neglected. 

The reality is that testing is a long-term investment, and many software engineers and tech leaders tend to underestimate its importance. This article aims to highlight why testing should be an integral part of your development workflow, particularly when working with Jakarta EE.