# The final version of Groovy 1.6 is there

> Announcing Groovy 1.6's final release, packed with performance boosts, AST transformations, Grape, and metaprogramming; download now!

Author: [Guillaume Laforge](https://glaforge.dev/) | Published: 2009-02-18 | Topics: groovy | Canonical: https://glaforge.dev/posts/2009/02/18/the-final-version-of-groovy-1-6-is-there/


This is with very great pleasure and honor that I'm announcing the **final release of Groovy 1.6**, on behalf of the Groovy development team and SpringSource.  
Obviously, 1.6 is a very important milestone for the project, with several great new features and improvements:

*   **great runtime performance improvements**
*   **multiple assignments**
*   optional return in `if`/`else` and `try`/`catch` blocks
*   **AST transformations** and all the provided transformation annotations like `@Singleton`, `@Lazy`, `@Immutable`, `@Delegate` and friends
*   the **Grape module and dependency system** and its `@Grab` transformation
*   various Swing builder improvements, thanks to the Swing / Griffon ([http://griffon.codehaus.org](http://griffon.codehaus.org/)) team
*   as well as several Swing console improvements
*   the integration of **JMX builder**
*   **JSR-223 scripting engine built-in**
*   various **metaprogramming improvements**, like the EMC DSL, per-instance metaclasses even for POJOs, and runtime mixins

An article will be published in the coming days on InfoQ and [GroovyMag](http://www.groovymag.com/) coming back on all those features and novelties with more details.

You can **download Groovy 1.6** at the usual place:[http://groovy.codehaus.org/Download](http://groovy.codehaus.org/Download)  
Additional installers and bundles will be provided soon.

And you can also have a look at the [JIRA changelog](http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/GROOVY?report=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.project:changelog-panel) listing features, improvements and bug fixes.

Very big thanks to all the developers who contributed to the project, in particular our most prolific ones like Paul, Roshan, Danno and Jochen, and to all our users who've helped shape the project, thanks to their great feedback and suggestions.

Let me also mention an interesting event which is shaping up: the **GR8 Conference**, a conference dedicated to Groovy, Grails and Griffon, organized by the Danish JUG and SpringSource!  

You can learn more about the event on the conference website: [http://www.gr8conf.org](http://www.gr8conf.org/) or by following the twitter account: [GR8 Conference Twitter account](http://twitter.com/gr8conf)  

The conference takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark, and will provide**several practical sessions and hands-on labs** **to get you up-to-speed on those great Groovy-based technologies**. The registration should be open in the coming days, so get ready!