JEP 267: Unicode 8.0
Summary
Upgrade existing platform APIs to support version 8.0 of the Unicode Standard.
Goals
Support the latest version of Unicode, with changes to the following classes:
Character
andString
in thejava.lang
package,NumericShaper
in thejava.awt.font
package, andBidi
,BreakIterator
, andNormalizer
in thejava.text
package.
Non-Goals
Two related Unicode specifications will not be implemented by this JEP:
- UTS #10, Unicode Collation Algorithm, and
- UTS #46, Unicode IDNA Compatibility Processing.
Motivation
Unicode is an evolving industry standard, so we must keep Java to date with the latest version.
Description
This is a follow-on to JEP 227, which introduced Unicode 7.0 in JDK 9. Unicode 8.0 adds an additional ~8,000 characters, 10 blocks, and 6 scripts.
Testing
We will need to verify that the latest Unicode data is correctly used by the relevant classes.
Risks and Assumptions
-
Unicode 8 was released in June 2015. While fairly late in JDK 9 development, it is important to always implement the latest Unicode standard. Deferring until JDK 10 would put us more than three years behind.
-
It's possible that a minor update to the Unicode Standard (e.g., 8.0.X) will be released before JDK 9 ships, in which case we may want to consider incorporating that version.
Dependences
This feature depends on the Unicode Standard of the Unicode Consortium.