Java 8 arrived earlier this year to much fanfare, including high marks for lambda expressions and JavaScript on the JVM via Nashorn. But not everything about Java 8 was a love fest, and core developers at Oracle are already chalking up plans for the next version to improve Java. Expected in early 2016, Java Development Kit 9, based on the Java Standard Edition 9 specification, is expected to include performance tweaks, new capabilities, and, most notably, modularity. While some proposed features could miss the final cut or be postponed to a later release, there's already a lot to like about Java's proposed future