adam bien's blog

Java projects are still plagued by outdated habits: excessive layers, unnecessary abstractions, more YAML/XML than code, tests for obvious things like getters, "Stats and Ticket-d riven Development" and systems where everything is configurable but nothing varies, leaving business logic buried under unnecessary complexity. It’s time to focus on code again. This session will demonstrate how modern Java 25 and standards can help us to reduce unnecessary complexity. The focus is on shipping real business logic with greater simplicity and maintainability.

Two Time Machines: Revisiting the 45th Episode After 9 Years, Java 25 Scripting With Zero Dependencies, Java vs. Kotlin in 2025, Web Components and Standards Without Frameworks, Multiple Datasources With Different Permissions for AI Agents, Connection Pools and JPA Cache in Serverless Environments, Why XA Transactions Are a Bad Idea, JavaFX Revival With Official Oracle Support, EJBs vs. CDI Pooling and Jakarta EE 12 Native Pooling Plans, BCE Design and AI Rails for AI Agents, Jakarta Data and Delta Spike Evolution, Docker Swarm vs. Kubernetes vs. OpenShift for Java Developers, Server Push With WebSockets and SSE in the MCP Era, Role-Based Access With MicroProfile JWT and @RolesAllowed, Scala vs. Rust vs. Java 25 Analysis, Why LLMs Understand Java Better Than Other Languages, zsmith Agent Harness in Pure Java 25, LangChain4j With Quarkus and Native Compilation, Zero-Dependency JUnit Runner Under 1 Second, JAX Frankfurt, AirHacks Munich Airport Workshop December 2026, Summer AirHacks Online, JCon Cologne, Devoxx Greece, JavaOne, Devoxx London, Geekon Krakow

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1. Opinion about the Rust programming language (asked by @Pscheidl on LinkedIn)
2. Time machine: the 46th airhacks.tv from January 2018

   Application metrics and monitoring in Java EE, ServerSockets vs higher-level alternatives, SSE, WebSockets, DAO anti-patterns, JPA historisation, SLSB tuning, Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift and more

3. Time machine: the 45th airhacks.tv from December 2017

   Kotlin in Java EE, JasperReport alternatives, custom REST headers, two persistence units in CDI, JPA internals, JWT authentication, Web Components, offline-first PWAs and more

4. airhacks workshops return to Munich Airport
5. conference report

Any questions left? Ask now: gist.github.com/AdamBien/4c2a1c099321bac29ecb6ebc262ae196 and get the answers at the next airhacks.tv. Some questions are also answered with a short video: 60 seconds or less with Java

LLMs know Java's normative APIs, specifications, and implementations. That changes how you write code. Code structure, naming conventions, and adherence to standards directly affect what LLMs generate. Well-structured, zero-dependency Java produces more consistent, more predictable LLM output and scales to big projects. Starting from a blank project, each step demonstrates how code organization, standard API usage, and consistent patterns influence LLM-assisted development. The same principles that make code readable for developers also make it processable for LLMs. No slides. No theory. Just code. Questions welcome at any time.

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Java 25 source-file mode turns a single file into an executable command. No compilation, no build tool, no .java extension. Here is how to create a zhello script:

1. Create a file named zhello (no extension) with the shebang #!/usr/bin/env -S java --source 25
2. Add an instance void main() method that calls IO.println("hello, world")
3. Make it executable: chmod +x zhello
4. Install it system-wide: sudo cp zhello /usr/local/bin/

The entire script:

#!/usr/bin/env -S java --source 25

void main() {
    IO.println("hello, world");
}

BCE pattern from 1992: top-level packages named by context not by layer, at most 3 sub-packages: Boundary, Control, Entity, @Transactional belongs only on the Boundary — one button push equals one use case equals one transaction, Hibernate Validator skipped in favor of custom Control-layer validation for precise 400-error handling, zero-dependency MCP server by Mr. Aldo from France: built with BCE and zero-dependency principles, Agent Smith live demo: zero-dependency Java 25 agent framework in ~130KB single JAR, transcriber agent with episodic memory and agent delegation, GPU Llama / TornadoVM: Apple Metal support for running Mistral and DevStral locally, plans to run Agent Smith without cloud, Z ecosystem: ZDate, ZJDocFind, ZUnit single-file test runner in ~300 lines with parallel execution, ZB build tool — all zero-dependency Java 25 scripts, LLMs understand standards better than frameworks — enables lean code generation without external dependencies, Enterprise Fire April 1st skill: converting Hello World to 73 classes with all patterns, hexagonal architecture appears for the first time on AirHacks, upcoming AirHacks Live summer workshops on spec-driven Java development and front-ends without dependencies

Do you have any more questions? See you at: airhacks.live

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Topics for the 145th airhacks.tv:

1. airails.dev microprofile-server skill: @Transactional in the boundary vs. control layer for bulk processing and synchronous API calls
2. BCE architecture in Jakarta Faces applications - how to structure them
3. Local inference with Tornado / Java GPULLama3
4. airails.dev microprofile-server skill: why never use quarkus-hibernate-validator? Alternatives to manual validation
5. MCP server with Zero-framework / BCE architecture by Aldo Lushklja: zdtp-mcp, blog post
6. Agent zSmith news
7. zeeds (Java Zero-Dependency Seed Scripts) news

See you every first Monday of the month at https://airhacks.tv 8pm CET (UTC+1:00). Show is also announced at: meetup.com/airhacks.

Ask questions during the show via twitter mentioning me: https://twitter.com/AdamBien (@AdamBien),using the hashtag: #airhacks or built-in chat at: airhacks.tv. You can join the Q&A session live each first Monday of month, 8 P.M at airhacks.tv

1. JCON Europe 2026: Livecoding: Creating Beautiful Java Code With LLM and Agents
   conference talk JCON Europe 2026 Cologne, Germany 21 April 2026
   https://schedule.jcon.one/2026/speakers
2. Devoxx Greece 2026: Your Java Code Is Your LLM Prompt
   conference talk Devoxx Greece 2026 Athens, Greece 23 April 2026
   https://m.devoxx.com/events/dvgr26/talks/13551/session-by-adam-bien
3. JAX, Mainz: Business Logic First: Escaping Java's Bloat Addiction
   conference talk JAX, Mainz Berlin, Germany 5 May 2026
   https://jax.de/serverside-enterprise-java/business-logic-first-java/
4. JAX, Mainz: Live Coding Production Java: Incremental Development with LLMs
   conference talk JAX, Mainz Berlin, Germany 5 May 2026
   https://jax.de/big-data-machine-learning/java-incremental-development-llm-java/
5. Geecon: The 50x Developer: Java's Unfair Advantage in the Age of AI Agents
   conference talk Geecon Krakow, Poland 14th May 2026
   https://2026.geecon.org/speakers/info.html?id=1062
6. VibeKode Conference: How To Write Great Code with LLMs #vibeless
   conference talk VibeKode Conference Munich, Germany 24 June 2026
   https://vibekode.it
7. Spec-Driven Java Development at LLM Speed[online event]
   online workshop 2 July 2026
   https://workshops.adam-bien.com
8. LLM-Assisted Web Components: No Frameworks, No Dependencies. Just Web Standards[online event]
   online workshop 16 July 2026
   https://workshops.adam-bien.com
9. airhacks.tv Questions and Answers #livestream[online event]
   live streaming show first monday of the month, 8pm CET
   https://www.meetup.com/airhacks/

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Java 25 script files (JEP 512: Compact Source Files and Instance Main Methods and JEP 458: Launch Multi-File Source-Code Programs) are self contained, but can specify a classpath in the shebang.

#!/usr/bin/java --class-path=zcl.jar  --source 25
void main() {
  Log.user("Hello, duke");
}

zunit is a zero-dependency, single-file Java 25 Script test runner. It discovers *Test.java source files and runs each directly via java --source 25. No compilation step, no JUnit, no build tool required — just run zunit.

A GreeterTest.java example:

void main() {
    var greeting = Greeter.greet("World");
    assert Objects.equals("Hello, World!", greeting) : "expected 'Hello, World!' but got: " + greeting;
}

Each test is a self-contained Java source script with a void main() method. Any thrown exception or non-zero exit code indicates test failure. Each test gets its own JVM — full execution isolation with zero shared state.

Run it with:

1. zunit to auto-detect and run all tests,
2. zunit -cp:zbo/app.jar for an explicit classpath
3. zb && zunit to build with zb first.

zunit is available from: github.com/AdamBien/zunit

The corresponding airails.dev skill is available from: github.com/AdamBien/airails/tree/main/java/zunit

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The talk covers how to build Java applications that auto-scale, are highly available, and run without traditional infrastructure overhead.

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS

"Java 25 scripting is more capable than anticipated and produces shorter code than Python equivalents, LLMs know Java specs by heart due to publicly available specifications and stable APIs, grounding LLMs on JAX-RS and CDI specs eliminates hallucinations, BCE architecture works well with LLM code generation, junior developers can leverage LLMs to learn faster than ever before, Java 26 brings HTTP/3 client and structured concurrency and vector API, web components are the fastest UI technology being native to browsers, zero-dependency Java scripts replace Python and shell scripts, AI Rails skills system allows modular reuse of Java source code, java.util.logging with System.Logger facade is recommended over external logging frameworks, Java 9 JPMS was the main migration blocker from Java 8, measuring AI usage percentage as KPI is as problematic as code coverage metrics, brownfield projects benefit most from LLM assistance with good templates"

Ask questions during the show via twitter mentioning me: https://twitter.com/AdamBien (@AdamBien),using the hashtag: #airhacks or built-in chat at: airhacks.tv. You can join the Q&A session live each first Monday of month, 8 P.M at airhacks.tv

1. Preparing for the AI era as Java developers
2. airails.dev updates
3. Java 26 features: 10 JEPs including HTTP/3, Structured Concurrency, AOT Object Caching, Lazy Constants, PEM Encodings, Vector API
4. Time machine: 100 episodes back (44th episode):

   JavaONE talk: Java EE heavyweight or lightweight Mythbusters and the comparison to Spring, How to build a progressbar with HTML 5, JAXB deprecation in Java9, Virtual DOM vs createElement performance, Reference Implementations of EE4J, Issue with org.eclipse.ee vs. javax.*, Impact of Java SE release strategy to EE4j or JavaEE, EJB Timer synchronization in cluster, DB Views vs. JPA for reports, Architectural considerations with REST and Redis, Critique of the "Roller blogger engine" Java EE clone, Accessing SFSB from SLSB, SFSB and scalability, State and async JAX-RS

Any questions left? Ask now: gist.github.com/AdamBien/5c85d2a2d3b2079fc5d55209dd8fcc61 and get the answers at the next airhacks.tv. Some questions are also answered with a short video: 60 seconds or less with Java

Ask questions during the show via twitter mentioning me: https://twitter.com/AdamBien (@AdamBien),using the hashtag: #airhacks or built-in chat at: airhacks.tv. You can join the Q&A session live each first Monday of month, 8 P.M at airhacks.tv

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS