About a year ago I made some predictions on Java, JavaScript and Maven for 2013. There has been some movement, so time to report back:
Java
Java 8 didn't quite make it as a GM release, but mid-March 2014 now appears to be the date. Java 8 has been available for playing with for some time during 2013 though.
I must confess to having been excited at the prospect of Java 8's lambda support a year ago, and I still think that what's coming is a great boost to the language. However I'm now squarely in the functional camp and, well, Java simply won't cut it. If you have an interest in functional programming, my personal recommendation is to move to a language designed for the job. Languages such as Scala which offer the best of the imperative and functional worlds are the ones to look at.
JavaScript
This one is mostly pinned to the release of Java 8 and Nashorn - DynJs hasn't really taken hold as I thought it might. So, may be March 2014 for this also.
Projects such as Trireme are particularly interesting as they bring the Node API to Rhino. I suspect that projects like this can be adapted to Nashorn, and I also see that Nashorn may provide its own Node API implementation, although the details on this are light. No matter what happens regarding Nashorn and its Node offerings, I suspect the Trireme and Rhino combination will remain relevant for some time given their Java 6 focus.
Maven
Maven continues to be strong however my hope for an alternate DSL for the pom hasn't materialised… sort of… Tesla polyglot is ready for a release and offers Groovy, Ruby and Scala DSLs for Maven. I actually wrote the Scala dsl :-)
I suspect that Tesla polyglot will be released sometime during the first quarter of 2014.
Conclusion
I feel that my predictions were largely on track, although they certainly haven't materialised within the timeframe that I expected. There's been considerable progress across all three fronts though and I'd be very surprised if they haven't materialised by the first half of 2014.
