With a viable-looking language and VM model on the table, I think its time to look at what we can do to _prepare_ the world for Valhalla. The Valhalla story will create some disturbance in the force; better to lay the groundwork early.
The most disruptive changes outlined in the recent document will be: - Migrating primitive wrappers to interfaces - Migrating away from `new Object()` We can prepare the ground for these early, as follows: - Add new interface IdentityObject (JDK) - Add new factories in Object: IdentityObject newIdentity() (JDK) - Warn when user says “new Object()”, perhaps translate to factory invocation (Language) - Inject IdentityObject into classes as a super interface (JVM) - Deprecate for removal wrapper constructors (JDK) - Deprecate for “removal” Object constructor (JDK) - Warnings when synchronizing on an instance of a wrapper (Language) - Support T.default notation (Language) - Detect synchronization on wrapper instances and throw (JVM) Most of these, with the exception of the last, range from simple to trivial.
