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+== AspectJ 1.9.8
+
+_© Copyright 2022 Contributors. All rights reserved._
+
+_Release info: 1.9.8 available 11-Feb-2022_
+
+Please note, that Bugzilla for issue management is deprecated, and new issues should be filed as
+https://github.com/eclipse/org.aspectj/issues/new[GitHub issues]. The list of issues addressed for 1.9.8 can be found
+https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=VERIFIED&bug_status=CLOSED&f0=OP&f1=OP&f3=CP&f4=CP&j1=OR&list_id=16866879&product=AspectJ&query_format=advanced&target_milestone=1.9.8[here for Bugzilla] and
+https://github.com/eclipse/org.aspectj/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aclosed++milestone%3A1.9.8[here for GitHub issues].
+
+=== New features
+
+AspectJ 1.9.8 supports https://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk/17/[Java 17] and its final and review features, such as:
+
+* Sealed classes (final in Java 17, previews in Java 15, 16 and AspectJ 1.9.7)
+* Pattern matching for `switch`
+
+=== Improvements
+
+The `--release N` compiler option for correct cross-compilation to previous JDK bytecode + API versions is now supported
+by AJC. Previously, the option existed (inherited by ECJ) but did not work correctly.
+
+The following new properties can improve performance, e.g. Spring start-up time:
+
+* `org.aspectj.apache.bcel.useSingleRepositoryInstance`
+* `org.aspectj.apache.bcel.useUnavailableClassesCache`
+* `org.aspectj.apache.bcel.ignoreCacheClearRequests`
+
+For now, they all default to `false` for backward compatibility. This might change in a future Aspect release, if user
+feedback is positive and no negative side effects are found. Please try using them as much as you can and report back
+questions (to the AspectJ users mailing list) or problems (as a GitHub issue), if any. Thanks to Stefan Starke for his
+contribution. See also https://github.com/eclipse/org.aspectj/pull/37[PR #37].
+
+=== Code examples
+
+You can find some sample code in the AspectJ test suite under the respective AspectJ version in which the features were
+first supported (possibly as JVM preview features):
+
+* https://github.com/eclipse/org.aspectj/tree/master/tests/features198/compiler_release[Cross-compilation to legacy JDK]:
+  An example class which only works correctly on JDK 8 when compiled with `--release 8` due to API changes in
+  the JDK. Simply `-source 8 -target 8` would not be enough in this case.
+* https://github.com/eclipse/org.aspectj/tree/master/tests/features198/java17[Pattern matching for `switch`]
+
+=== Other changes and bug fixes
+
+* The AspectJ compiler `ajc` (contained in the `aspectjtools` library) no longer works on JDKs 8 to 10. The minimum
+  compile-time requirement is now JDK 11 due to upstream changes in the Eclipse Java Compiler (subset of JDT Core),
+  which AspectJ is a fork of. You can still compile to legacy target versions as low as Java 1.3 when compiling plain
+  Java code or using plain Java ITD constructs which do not require the AspectJ runtime `aspectjrt`, but the compiler
+  itself needs JDK 11+. Just like in previous AspectJ versions, both the runtime `aspectjrt` and the load-time weaver
+  `aspectjweaver` still only require JRE 8+.
+* Document build profiles and properties in _docs/developer/BUILD.md_
+* Add a guide for setting up an AspectJ development environment in _docs/developer/IDE.md_
+* Fix https://github.com/eclipse/org.aspectj/issues/105[issue #105]: Compilation fails when using an aspect library via
+  `-aspectpath` in combination with introducing an annotation via ITD. This was broken since version 1.9.5 and fixed in
+  1.9.8.RC3.
+* Fix https://github.com/eclipse/org.aspectj/issues/68[issue #68]: Correctly process class files containing
+  https://openjdk.java.net/jeps/309[dynamic class-file constants (JEP 309)], which were introduced in Java 11 and broken
+  in AspectJ ever since their introduction in 1.9.2. Java itself currently does not use "condy" and neither do other
+  widespread JVM languages. Byte code engineering libraries like ASM or Byte Buddy and some instrumentation tools like
+  JaCoCo can however produce condy code. Therefore, in order to create a regression test, we actually had to
+  https://github.com/eclipse/org.aspectj/blob/de63b63d/tests/bugs198/github_68/Generator.java#L50-L61[craft a condy
+  class with ASM].
+* Thanks to Andrey Turbanov for several clean code contributions and to Dmitry Mikhaylov for fixing a potential
+  concurrency problem.
+
+=== AspectJ usage hints
+
+==== Use LTW on Java 16+
+
+Please note that if you want to use load-time weaving on Java 16+, the weaving agent collides with
+https://openjdk.java.net/jeps/396[JEP 396 (Strongly Encapsulate JDK Internals by Default)]. Therefore, you need to set
+the JVM parameter `--add-opens java.base/java.lang=ALL-UNNAMED` in order to enable aspect weaving. This is due to the
+fact that the weaver uses internal APIs for which we have not found an adequate replacement yet when defining classes
+in different classloaders.
+
+==== Compile with Java preview features
+
+For features marked as preview on a given JDK, you need to compile with `ajc --enable-preview` and run with
+`java --enable-preview` on that JDK.
+
+Please note, that you cannot run code compiled with preview features on any other JDK than the one used for compilation.
+For example, records compiled with preview on JDK 15 cannot be used on JDK 16 without recompilation. This is a JVM
+limitation unrelated to AspectJ. Also, e.g. sealed classes are preview-1 on JDK 15 and preview-2 on JDK 16. You still
+need to recompile, no matter what.