JEP 227: Unicode 7.0

Owner	Yuka Kamiya
Type	Feature
Scope	SE
Status	Closed / Delivered
Release	9
Component	core-libs / java.lang
Discussion	i18n dash dev at openjdk dot java dot net
Effort	L
Duration	XL
Reviewed by	Brian Goetz
Endorsed by	Brian Goetz
Created	2014/05/22 23:47
Updated	2016/12/09 03:04
Issue	8043825

Summary

Upgrade existing platform APIs to support version 7.0 of the Unicode Standard.

Goals

Support the latest version of Unicode, mainly in the following classes:

Character and String in the java.lang package, and
Bidi, BreakIterator, and Normalizer in the java.text package.

Non-Goals

Two related Unicode specifications are not implemented by this JEP:

UTS #10, Unicode Collation Algorithm, and
UTS #46, Unicode IDNA Compatibility Processing.

Motivation

Unicode is an industry standard, so it's important for Java to support the latest version.

Description

Java SE 8 supports Unicode 6.2.

This upgrade will include an improvement to bidirectional behavior, which enables better text display for languages such as Arabic and Hebrew, that was introduced in Unicode 6.3. Unicode 7.0 itself will add about three thousand characters and over twenty scripts.

Testing

We will need to verify that the latest Unicode data is correctly used by the relevant classes.

Risks and Assumptions

If a version later than 7.0 is released in the JDK 9 time frame then this JEP will most likely be updated to specify that version.

Dependences

This feature depends on the Unicode Standard of the Unicode Consortium.