Foojay.io | Friends of OpenJDK and Java Programming

Foojay.io | Java and Programming Community

Foojay.io is your go-to programming community podcast, connecting developers with the latest in Java, OpenJDK, JVM, and open source tools. We bring together Java professionals worldwide to share insights, tools, and news in the vibrant Java programming ecosystem.

  1. Oct 17

    Killing Reflection at Build Time: Avro, Codename One and Java Codegen (#103)

    Runtime reflection is a quiet tax on the JVM. It is flexible, it is everywhere, and it is easy to stop noticing it until you go looking for where your CPU is actually going. Two teams did exactly that, in completely different corners of the ecosystem, and arrived at the same answer: move the work to build time. In this episode, Dmitry Moskalyuk explains the model layer behind his Foojay article on reflection-free serialization, where JSON, XML, YAML and TOML all end up as Avro. Shai Almog explains the build-time codegen pipeline of Codename One, which aims for no reflection, no service loader and no Class.forName. We compare the two and ask whether generated code is really something to avoid. Topics include: Where Jackson's reflection cost really lives, and what Blackbird does about itJackson versus kotlinx.serialization, and why a missing feature sent the team back to JacksonWhy a UI framework bans reflection, and how that differs from the backendIs generated code bad? Lombok, Manifold and jOOQWhat Records and Project Leyden change for reflectionBuild time cost versus runtime cost, and a single source of truth for your data modelShould you still use reflection in a new project? Guests:Dmitry Moskalyuk, Senior Backend EngineerDmitry on LinkedInShai Almog, Author, DevRel and open source developer working on Codename OneShai on LinkedIn Links: Dmitry's article on FoojayShai's article on FoojayJackson BlackbirdApache AvroProject LeydenFull show notes with every link Timestamps:00:00 Introduction of topic and guests01:50 About the new Foojay, contributing with GitHub pull requests03:17 What is Apache Avro04:26 What is Codename One06:31 What is Blackbird in Jackson and compared to kotlinx mechanisms for different content parsers10:01 Why Codename One focuses on "no reflection, no service loader, no Class.forName"14:23 Is automatically generated code bad (Lombok, Manifold, JOOQ)?17:47 Java evolutions that bring improvements into the system (Records, Project Leyden)21:31 Is reflection changing through Java versions?24:29 Build time cost versus runtime, Project Leyden28:41 Use of reflection in UI versus backend32:16 Benefit of your data model in a (Java) object, having one source of truth, good debugging35:35 Should you worry about serialization in a small project37:38 Serialization and security38:57 Should I still use reflection/serialization in a new project?43:22 Conclusion

    Killing Reflection at Build Time: Avro, Codename One and Java Codegen (#103)

  2. Oct 3

    We Left WordPress: CMS vs Static Sites, Hugo vs Jekyll vs Roq (#102)

    Foojay.io quietly moved off WordPress and onto Hugo. No more CMS login, no database, no admin panel — just Markdown and AsciiDoc files, built and deployed straight from GitHub. So is a traditional CMS still the right way to run a content site in 2026, or has static tooling caught up? In this episode, Andy Damevin and Holly Cummins from the Red Hat Quarkus team join to talk through it. Andy created code.quarkus.io and Roq, Quarkus's own Java-based static site framework; Holly led the migration of quarkus.io itself from Jekyll to Roq. We go through the real security numbers behind WordPress's plugin ecosystem, and put very different static site generators head to head: Hugo and Jekyll, the veterans, versus Roq, the newcomer. Topics include: Why WordPress core is usually fine, and the plugins are where the trouble is — over 10,000 plugin vulnerabilities found since 2025What "recovery" means for a static site versus a CMS after a hack or defacementJekyll, Hugo, Roq and JBake compared, and why staying in Java matters (or doesn't)How to extend Roq as a Java developer, from a small PR to writing your own pluginWhat an actual WordPress-to-Roq migration looks like in practiceWhere a CMS still earns its keep despite all of this Guests: Andy Damevin on LinkedIn - Principal Software Engineer at Red Hat, Quarkus core team, creator of code.quarkus.io and Roq Holly Cummins on LinkedIn - Senior Principal Software Engineer, Red Hat Quarkus team, led the quarkus.io migration from Jekyll to Roq Links: Migrate from WordPress to RoqRoqHugoFull show notes Timestamps:00:00 Introduction of topic and guests03:29 Why WordPress is not the best choice for most sites04:36 Difference between CMS-driven websites and static websites07:02 Jekyll versus Roq and other systems11:04 How to extend Roq12:59 Moving from WordPress to Roq14:43 Pulling data with JBang or Roq from external sources into your publication process16:09 Why should I use Roq instead of Jekyll or Hugo?24:33 Static websites can be created with a small team and are much cheaper (or even free) to host26:52 How many WordPress websites have a backup to recover after getting hacked? And the advantage of having your content sources on Git.33:04 Is there still a use case for WordPress-like systems?37:09 Conclusions

    We Left WordPress: CMS vs Static Sites, Hugo vs Jekyll vs Roq (#102)

  3. Sep 12

    Java 27 in Practice: Smaller Heaps, Smarter Defaults, and Valhalla on the Horizon (#101)

    Episode 101 of the Foojay Podcast. JDK 27 arrives on 15 September 2026 without finalising a single new piece of language syntax. It is still worth the upgrade: object headers shrink from 64 bits to 32, which the JEP measures at 22% less heap and 8% less CPU on SPECjbb2015, and G1 becomes the default garbage collector on every machine. Both changes live inside the JVM, so an application you compiled years ago picks them up with no code change at all. Simon Ritter, Deputy CTO at Azul and Java Champion, takes us through all nine JEPs in the release, explains why a non-LTS version is still worth testing against, and makes the point that "long-term support" describes the binary you download rather than anything in OpenJDK itself. We also cover the move from quarterly to monthly security updates that started in August 2026, and then look ahead to March 2027, when Project Valhalla reaches its first preview after roughly twelve years of work. Topics include: Compact object headers by default, and what 22% less heap actually buys you in productionPost-quantum key exchange in TLS 1.3, and the harvest-now-decrypt-later attack it defends againstJFR redaction: keeping access tokens and passwords out of flight recordings you shareStructured concurrency in its seventh preview, and why an evolving API stays in previewThe Vector API's twelfth incubation, and what it is waiting forValue Objects in Java 28: a new value keyword, 179,000 lines, 1,800 files, and why it will not be final in JDK 29Whether a Simple JSON API in the JDK will survive its previews, or go the way of string templates Guest: Simon RitterDeputy CTO at Azul, Java ChampionSimon on LinkedInSimon on Foojay Links:Full show notes, with every JEP linkedJDK 27What CSPUs Mean for Your Release PipelineWhat to Know About Garbage Collection as a Java Developer!Project Valhalla Timestamps:00:00 Introduction of the topic and guest01:27 How long Simon has been doing Java01:54 Why release 27 is important, even when not being a Long Term Support release04:55 Quarterly and monthly security updates between new version releases08:07 Which JVM versions are most used in companies09:23 JEP 534: Compact Object Headers by Default14:51 JEP 523: Make G1 the Default Garbage Collector in All Environments18:59 JEP 527: Post-Quantum Hybrid Key Exchange for TLS 1.322:55 JEP 538: PEM Encodings of Cryptographic Objects (Third Preview)25:35 JEP 536: JFR In-Process Data Redaction28:02 JEP 531: Lazy Constants (Third Preview)29:55 JEP 532: Primitive Types in Patterns, instanceof, and switch (Fifth Preview)33:13 JEP 533: Structured Concurrency (Seventh Preview)38:21 JEP 537: Vector API (Twelfth Incubator)40:28 Looking forward to Java 28 and Project Valhalla42:31 JEP 401: Value Objects and JEP 539: Strict Field Initialization47:36 Can we expect this to be finalized in Java 29?48:26 LTS releases every 1, 2, or 3 years?49:55 JEP 541: Deprecate macOS/x6451:53 JEP 540: Simple JSON API (Incubator)55:30 Conclusion, what to remember from this release

    Java 27 in Practice: Smaller Heaps, Smarter Defaults, and Valhalla on the Horizon (#101)

  4. Jul 11

    Foojay Podcast #100: Java Podcasters on Why They Started, What Broke, and What They Learned (#100)

    Episode 100 of the Foojay Podcast. No grand plan. It just happened. To mark the milestone, Frank turned the microphone around and invited other podcasters: Adam Bien (airhacks.fm), Jennifer Reif (Breaktime Tech Talks), Kadi McKean and Steve Pool (10xInsights), and Oumaima Zerouali (JCast). Same questions for each: why did you start, what broke, and what did you learn? Along the way: why a no-prep podcast works when you have 20 years of experience, the difference between writing a blog and recording a podcast, burnout from editing, AI tools that changed someone's voice into Batman, and why a Dutch Java podcast about the human side of development got its first episode from a calendar invite that became a recording. Guests: Adam Bien — airhacks.fmJennifer Reif — Breaktime Tech TalksKadi McKean and Steve Pool — 10xInsightsOumaima Zerouali — JCast Links: airhacks.fm on SpotifyBreaktime Tech Talks on Spotify10xInsights | 10xInsights on SpotifyJCastFoojay Podcast #67: Writing a book. Does it make you rich and famous?Foojay Podcast #71: 30 Years of Java with James GoslingFoojay Podcast #99: Testing the Untestable: LLM Security for Java Developers with TiberiusFrank on JCastOther podcasts mentioned:Spring Documentary Content: 00:00 Introduction 01:00 Adam Bien (airhacks.fm) 12:52 Jennifer Reif (Breaktime Tech Talks) 26:25 Kadi McKean and Steve Pool (10xInsights) 38:43 Quote by James Gosling 39:46 Oumaima Zerouali (JCast) 48:01 Conclusion Hosted by Frank Delporte | foojay.io

    Foojay Podcast #100: Java Podcasters on Why They Started, What Broke, and What They Learned (#100)

  5. Jun 20

    Testing the Untestable: LLM Security for Java Developers with Tiberius (#99)

    Your Java AI application is live in production. But have you tested whether it can be jailbroken, manipulated into revealing its system prompt, or tricked into printing content it should never output? In this episode, Iryna Dohndorf, Software Engineer at Karakun Group and creator of Tiberius, explains how to bring security testing to LLM-powered Java applications. We cover why traditional unit tests break down with non-deterministic systems, how the Scan-Fixture-Validate workflow works, what buff mutation testing is, and why even well-trained models can be cracked with something as simple as the grandmother attack. Topics include: Why LLM non-determinism breaks the classic input/output test modelThe Scan-Fixture-Validate principle and sharing test artifacts across teamsPrompt injection, jailbreaks, and emotional manipulation attacksBuff mutation: testing linguistic surface coverageProbabilistic security contracts and multi-trial scansFingerprinting and why your model choice should not be detectableLLM as a judge: using a second model as a guardrailGetting started with Tiberius in Spring Boot and LangChain4jGuestIryna Dohndorf - Software Engineer at Karakun GroupLinkedIn LinksArticle on FoojayTiberius on GitHubSecurity Testing Guide Timestamps00:00 Introduction of topic and guest01:05 The problem Tiberius wants to solve06:39 How "traditional" unit tests don't work for LLM integrations10:23 Scan-Fixture-Validate principle and sharing artifacts15:15 Using different skills, for example, the grandmother skill17:33 Testing for required versus forbidden bias19:35 The probes across nine attack categories used by Tiberius20:44 Buff mutation testing26:55 Using Tiberius in your pipelines and when to fail29:35 Using multi-trial scans31:14 Fingerprinting: which model you use, should not be detectable32:55 Combining multiple models, model as a judge34:41 Sharing JSON models to improve tests36:05 How to get started with Tiberius in Spring and with LangChain4j36:41 Quarkus not supported yet, plans for the future39:07 Conclusions and a call out to everyone to become a Foojay author

    Testing the Untestable: LLM Security for Java Developers with Tiberius (#99)

  6. Jun 13

    The End of JNI Pain: How WebAssembly Is Quietly Replacing Native Libraries in Java (#98)

    WebAssembly is already running inside Java applications, but most developers just don't know it yet. In this episode, Andrea Peruffo walks us through how WebAssembly is becoming the modern, safe alternative to JNI. Run Rust, C, and other native libraries directly on the JVM, without the crash risks, per-platform packaging headaches, or the observability blackhole that JNI creates. From JRuby's Prism parser to SQLite and full Postgres running as pure Java bytecode, the use cases are real. And the project making it possible, Endive, under the Bytecode Alliance, is open and ready to explore. Guest Andrea Peruffo GitHub: https://github.com/andreaTP/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-peruffo-32269178/Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/andreatp.bsky.socialLinks A New Generation of Java Libraries: Wasm Becomes the Implementation DetailChicory on GitHubEndive on GitHubEndive documentationBytecode AllianceOpenJDK Project DetroitTimestamps00:00 Introduction of topic and guests00:56 What is WebAssembly?03:35 Comparing the performance with JavaScript05:45 JRuby already uses WebAssembly09:04 JNI versus FFM API versus WebAssembly13:58 Other Java-related tools that use WebAssembly17:56 History of the Chicory and Endive projects to bring WebAssembly to Java21:03 Projects of the Bytecode Alliance22:02 The Endive project as the glue to bring WebAssembly tools to Java23:30 Integration of the Redline compiler28:59 Why this is the perfect solution to modernize existing Java applications31:18 Is this approach performant?32:24 What future changes in Java and the JVM will make this even better35:04 How Endive can be used in AI development37:28 What to expect in Endive41:29 Conclusions

    The End of JNI Pain: How WebAssembly Is Quietly Replacing Native Libraries in Java (#98)

  7. May 30

    From Scripting Language to AI Powerhouse: How BoxLang Is Redefining JVM Development (#97)

    BoxLang is a modern dynamic JVM language built for rapid application development. It's 100% Java-interoperable, compiles to JVM bytecode, and deployable anywhere from OS to AWS Lambda to Spring Boot. In this episode, we sit down with Luis Majano (CEO of Ortus Solutions and creator of BoxLang) and Cristobal Escobar (BoxLang community manager) to dig into the wave of innovation that has hit the platform over the past few months. We cover the BoxLang AI v3 release, a major overhaul that ships multi-agent orchestration with parent-child hierarchies, an AI Skills system based on Anthropic's open standard, MCP server integration (both consuming and serving), a composable middleware layer with six built-in classes including a FlightRecorder for deterministic CI testing, and a unified API spanning 17 AI providers. Luis and Cristobal walk us through the highlights of a 7-part BoxLang AI deep dive series, covering tools, memory systems & RAG, streaming, middleware, and MCP. We also touch on the BoxLang Spring Boot Starter, BoxLings (an interactive TDD/BDD learning platform), and TestBox 7's real-time streaming test runner. Whether you're a Java developer curious about dynamic JVM languages, an AI engineer looking for a productive alternative to Python-based agent frameworks, or just want to see what the JVM ecosystem can do in 2026, this episode is for you. Guests Luis Majano Foojay author pageLinkedInCristobal Escobar Foojay author pageLinkedInLinks On the BoxLang website: BoxLang docsBoxLang AI docsBoxLang AcademyBoxLang for desktop applicationsBoxLang Spring Boot StarterBoxLingsAnnouncing MatchBox Open Beta: BoxLang, Now Running in New PlacesTry BoxLangOn Foojay: Overview of all recent BoxLang AI articles: Complete Guide to Building AI AgentsBoxLang AI v3 Has LandedBoxLang AI Deep Dive series, Parts 1–7How to Develop AI Agents Using BoxLang AI: A Practical GuideIntroducing the BoxLang Spring Boot StarterIntroducing BoxLings!Introducing skills.boxlang.io — The Open Agent Skills Ecosystem for BoxLang & the Ortus World Content 00:00 Introduction of topic and guests01:17 What is BoxLang and how to use it05:25 Multi-runtime (WASM) with MatchBox, based on Rust07:00 Combining BoxLang with Spring Boot10:40 The abstraction approach in BoxLang AI, compared with LangChain4j and others14:18 Markdown skill files similar to Claude are also used in BoxLang AI15:21 About the 7-part Foojay BoxLang Deep Dive posts series, agents, event-driven,...19:28 BoxLang can be used for MCP server and client23:01 Premium features in BoxLang and building a company on an open-source project27:52 BoxLings, an interactive learning tool for BoxLang that teaches TDD and BDD30:25 TestBox 7, real-time streaming test execution and a browser-based IDE32:58 How to get started with BoxLang?34:14 How the evolutions in the JVM and Java language influence BoxLang development39:33 Which article to read first on Foojay about BoxLang?43:27 More learning resources and ideas for the future and desktop development48:05 Conclusions

    From Scripting Language to AI Powerhouse: How BoxLang Is Redefining JVM Development (#97)

  8. May 23

    Run 35 AWS Services Locally FREE: Floci, Quarkus and GraalVM-Powered, LocalStack Alternative (#96)

    What if you could run 35 AWS services locally in under 25 milliseconds, using just 13 megabytes of memory, with a single Docker command and no cloud bill? That's exactly what Floci does. In this episode, Frank Delporte talks with Hector Ventura, the creator of Floci, a free and open-source cloud emulator built with Quarkus and GraalVM native compilation. Hector walks us through why he built it when LocalStack dropped its open-source community edition, how AI tooling helped him accelerate development of new service integrations, the challenges of keeping GraalVM happy with third-party libraries, and the road ahead for Azure and GCP support. If you're a developer who wants fast local testing, a DevOps engineer writing Terraform, or a student learning cloud without the cost, Floci is worth a look! Guest: Hector Ventura Foojay Author page LinkedIn Links On Foojay: Introducing Floci: A High-Performance, GraalVM-Powered AWS Emulator Floci project site Floci on GitHub Migrate from LocalStack Content 00:00 Introduction of topic and guest 01:48 What is Floci? 02:15 How Floci compares to LocalStack 03:01 Why Hector started Floci 04:02 Floci emulates the cloud APIs 05:02 How additional services got integrated with AI assistance 06:31 Meaning of the name Floci 07:07 Why Quarkus and GraalVM as the starting point for Floci 09:35 How Floci starts up very fast and only uses a low amount of memory 12:18 GraalVM can be hard with some libraries or frameworks 14:02 What is needed to use Floci 14:56 The challenges to support AWS, Azure, GCP and finding contributors 20:24 Funding Floci 21:04 How data is persisted in Floci 22:37 Verifying Floci versus the "real" APIs with compatibility tests 23:56 In the future: UI for Floci 25:04 Biggest challenges while creating Floci 25:32 Functionality compared between Floci and LocalStack and migrating 28:15 Feedback from the Floci users 28:58 Long-term plans for Floci 29:59 Biggest surprises during the development of Floci 31:00 Best use-cases for Floci 32:12 In the next releases... 33:31 How to get started with Floci 35:00 Conclusion

    Run 35 AWS Services Locally FREE: Floci, Quarkus and GraalVM-Powered, LocalStack Alternative (#96)
See All (102)

About

Foojay.io is your go-to programming community podcast, connecting developers with the latest in Java, OpenJDK, JVM, and open source tools. We bring together Java professionals worldwide to share insights, tools, and news in the vibrant Java programming ecosystem.

Information

You Might Also Like