Oracle's Dan Smith outlined Java language roadmap plans at JavaOne 2026, covering features under consideration but not yet scheduled for a release. Key areas include value classes and objects (JEP 401) for identity-free class instances, derived record creation (JEP 468) to simplify creating new records from existing ones, enhanced primitive boxing (JEP 402) to treat primitives more like reference types, and primitive types in patterns/instanceof/switch (JEP 530) currently in its fourth preview in JDK 26. Array improvements are also planned, including declarative array creation, final arrays, non-null arrays, and covariant primitive arrays.
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