Jura: A Successor to Java

John Winn, December 2003

[Sourceforge project page] SourceForge.net Logo

Jura is a new language which I have invented as a successor to the Java language.  There are so many languages out there that the decision to create a new one should never be taken lightly, but this is why we need a successor to Java

This online document summarises the Jura language and gives a number of examples of Jura source code.

Key features of Jura

The Jura language has a number of key features:

There are some new languages out there which share some of the design goals of Jura (see the Extended Java and OO languages sections on this page).  Whilst some of these implement some of the above features, none implement them all in a single, clean, consistent language.  Unhappily, many new languages add features which I consider dangerous (or at best unhelpful) as they go against the principle of declarative programming (you should write only what you mean). I currently consider Aspect Orientated Programming in this category - programmatic design patterns and transforms can do the same job but in a clean, object-orientated way.

A prototype Jura compiler

I have created a prototype Jura compiler which is released under the Lesser GPL licence. This means that the compiler itself is open source but that it can be used to to compile either open source or proprietary programs. The compiler turns Jura source code into Java classes and so allows Jura classes to be used from Java and vice versa.

Browse source code in CVS.