Apache Groovy 3.0 Released, introducing numerous new features

February 10, Apache Groovy team released Apache Groovy 3.0.0, a statically typed, dynamic language for Java platform.  In this new major release, numerous new features are introduced.

Apache Groovy is an object-oriented programming language that can output binary that runs on Java virtual machine.  It is highly compatible with Java, and what is notable is that it integrates features from many other languages.  While having many features, it is easy to learn, and it supports smooth integration with Java.  It is also suitable for using it as domain-specific language.

Apache Groovy 3.0 is the new major release since version 2, released in 2012.  Compared with version 2.5, there are over 500 new features, improvements, and bug fixes.

The most notable change is the new “Parrot” parser.  It is enabled by default, but it can be disabled via system property.  Compared with the previous parser, it is more flexible and maintainable.  It also includes Java-style array initializer and supports many new syntax like Lambda.

To make Groovy’s original modules compliant with Java Platform Module System, some classes offer “a deprecated class having the old package name,” and “a new class having the new package name.”  Currently, it needs to be added to the classpath and not module path when using JDK9+, but targeting Groovy 4, it allows users to begin the migration process.

GDK has been improved with about 80 new extensions.  There are many more feature improvements added to the release.

Apache Groovy
https://groovy-lang.org/