= Clojure 1.8 is now available
Alex Miller
2016-01-19
:jbake-type: post

ifdef::env-github,env-browser[:outfilesuffix: .adoc]

Some of the new features for 1.8 are:

* More string functions in https://clojure.github.io/clojure/clojure.string-api.html[clojure.string] (portable to ClojureScript): index-of, last-index-of, starts-with?, ends-with?, includes?
* Compiler <<xref/../../../../../reference/compilation#directlinking,direct linking>> - improves performance and startup time
* <<xref/../../../../../reference/repl_and_main#_launching_a_socket_server,Socket server>> and socket server REPL - adds the ability to allow remote Clojure REPL connections

For more information, see the https://github.com/clojure/clojure/blob/master/changes.md[complete list] of all changes since Clojure 1.7 for more details.

## Contributors

Thanks to all of those who contributed to Clojure 1.8 (first time contributors in bold):

* *Alexander Yakushev*
* Alex Miller
* Alex Redington
* Alf Kristian Stoyle
* Ambrose Bonnaire-Sergeant
* *Andrew Rosa*
* Andy Fingerhut
* *Andy Sheldon*
* *Aspasia Beneti*
* *Blake West*
* Bozhidar Batsov
* *Daniel Compton*
* *Erik Assum*
* Gary Fredericks
* Ghadi Shayban
* *Gordon Syme*
* Howard Lewis Ship
* *Jean Niklas L'orange*
* *Jeremy Heiler*
* *Jonas Enlund*
* Jozef Wagner
* Karsten Schmidt
* Kevin Downey
* *Mark Simpson*
* Michael Blume
* *Nahuel Greco*
* Nicola Mometto
* *Nikita Prokopov*
* *Nola Stowe*
* *Ragnar Dahlén*
* *Ralf Schmitt*
* Rich Hickey
* *Russ Olsen*
* *Shogo Ohta*
* Steve Miner
* Stuart Halloway
* Timothy Baldridge
* *Tsutomu Yano*
* *Yanxiang Lou*
