Project Valhalla’s current draft proposal includes value classes, nullness markers (aka null-restricted types) for identity and value classes, as well as an extended construction protocol for null-restricted fields. Taken together this would allow Java developers to create types with much of the power of regular reference types but performance close to that of primitives - hence the slogan “codes like a class, works like an int”.

At JVMLS 2024, project lead Brian Goetz presented the current state of Project Valhalla and this episode summarizes the proposed changes to the programming model.

Make sure to check the show-notes.