dev2next Conference The conference to learn, apply, and improve our craft.

The CFP for @dev2next.bsky.social closes on Friday. Are your proposals in yet?

Also a little birdie says many have already registered for the event at the lowest price possible.

Links to checkout more details:

CFP: www.dev2next.com/cfp
Tickets: www.dev2next.com/register
More: www.dev2next.com

I updated the blog linked above with a great @groovy.apache.org blog on haiku processing from @paulk-asert.bsky.social. I'm thinking maybe Paul, @josepaumard.bsky.social and I should submit a CFP proposal on haiku processing to some conference.
groovy.apache.org/blog/groovy-...

The Tangent is the Opportunity Focus and flow are great until they hinder and hide creative discoveries.

The world of software devs is more interconnected than you might realize. It only takes a little spark of inspiration to ignite some good work and sharing across the global dev community.

The world is small. Keep writing and sharing. Follow those tangents. 🙏
donraab.medium.com/the-tangent-...

💯

On Winning JCP Member/Participant of the Year for 2025 at JavaOne 2026 I missed JavaOne 2026 and a surprise award at the annual JCP Event.

This was a very nice surprise announced during the first JavaOne that I have missed in over a decade. Thank you to everyone in the JCP, and to @cguntur.bsky.social for being at the JCP Event at JavaOne 2026 to accept and then hand deliver the award. 🙏
donraab.medium.com/on-winning-j...

The Quieting of the Quiet Ones The echo chambers have become deafening

I'm feeling this more now. I'm listening, trying to hear. The silence is deafening.
donraab.medium.com/the-quieting...

What if Java had Symmetric Converter Methods on Collection? Comparing converter methods in Smalltalk, Java, and Eclipse Collections

This week I learned the Kotlin toSet() method returns a LinkedHashSet. This was unexpected, but explainable. Discovering this reminded me that #EclipseCollections is missing OrderedSet and toOrderedSet(). There is OrderedIterable, toSet() and toSortedSet(). 🤔
donraab.medium.com/what-if-java...

Measuring the Startup Memory Cost for Lazy Iteration Patterns in Java The Memory Cost of Java Stream vs. Eclipse Collections LazyIterable

donraab.medium.com/measuring-th...

#Java and #EclipseCollections. More features. Less waste. Perfect together.

Sponsor @hcoles on GitHub Sponsors Henry is an Oracle Java Champion and has spent the past 15 years making mutation testing popular on the JVM and beyond. He's the creator of PIT/pitest - relied on by thousands of companies worldwid...

If anyone would like to help a hungry developer out (and support the development of pitest) I've just setup a GitHub sponsorship link.

github.com/sponsors/hco...

#java #oss

Building Better Building Blocks In search of the simplification of our software building blocks

I wrote a blog titled "Building Better Building Blocks" a year ago.

2026 will be the year we build concrete huts out of slop on top of sand. The code may work, but will suboptimal for machines and humans. Invest in the building blocks. Keep reading and learning. 📚
donraab.medium.com/building-bet...

An image with a mind map showing the benefits of refactoring to Eclipse Collections

I'll be presenting "Refactoring to Eclipse Collections: Making Your Java Streams Leaner, Meaner, and Cleaner" at the Garden State #Java User Group meetup on April 14, 2026. Join to learn even more reasons to refactor to #EclipseCollections.

"Hold onto your bytes!" 🔢 👀

🔗 Link: gsjug.org

At my first Knicks game

Java Annotated Monthly – April 2026 | The IntelliJ IDEA Blog It's safe to say March was defined by one thing: Java 26. In this issue of Java Annotated Monthly, we've curated a rich selection of articles to help you get the full picture of the release. Marit van

Java Annotated Monthly is here 🔥

This edition brings you @maritvandijk.bsky.social highlights on Java 26, along with fresh tips, insights, and must-know news from across the tech world.

Catch up, stay sharp.

Sweating the small stuff in Java The story of small FixedSizeCollection types in Eclipse Collections

Remember that the software you are writing at ludicrous speed with AI is running on hardware that has limits. Don't flood your hardware with inefficient code. Learn how to effectively test for performance and memory efficiency, and keep the bloat out of your systems.
medium.com/better-progr...

"If it hurts when you touch it, then don't touch it" sometimes also applies. :)

Code reviews really can be exhausting.

Image of two octocats gives hi-fives with text that says "You made it to the end!"

This image at the end of my last GitHub code review was giving me all the apocalyptic feels.

Looking for work. Will DevRel for coffee or wine 😁

Measuring the Startup Memory Cost for Lazy Iteration Patterns in Java The Memory Cost of Java Stream vs. Eclipse Collections LazyIterable

"Hold onto your bytes..."

RAM prices got you down? Focus on the little things that might make a small difference in your life. Byte size improvements can be hard to find but sometimes pay off quietly in the long run. 🤷‍♂️
donraab.medium.com/measuring-th...

Measuring the Startup Memory Cost for Lazy Iteration Patterns in Java The Memory Cost of Java Stream vs. Eclipse Collections LazyIterable

"Hold onto your bytes..."

RAM prices got you down? Focus on the little things that might make a small difference in your life. Byte size improvements can be hard to find but sometimes pay off quietly in the long run. 🤷‍♂️
donraab.medium.com/measuring-th...

👀 👓 🔎

I can't unsee what I am seeing with #Java Stream.

Image of two octocats gives hi-fives with text that says "You made it to the end!"

This image at the end of my last GitHub code review was giving me all the apocalyptic feels.

Empty Should be Empty Why does empty cost so much in Java sometimes?

I have submitted a PR for #EclipseCollections with an EmptyLazyIterable implementation that is a singleton. I started with ImmutableCollection classes, as this is a no-brainer optimization there. Empty will soon be empty again. #EmptyShouldBeEmpty
donraab.medium.com/empty-should...

Beautiful! ❤️

I had a great coding idea to reduce the startup memory cost of lazy iteration in #EclipseCollections. Turns out I had the same great idea once before and implemented it well over a decade ago. 🤷‍♂️ #ThisIsWhyIWriteThingsDown

#sunset

Why hasn't Generative AI fully designed, implemented, and delivered Project Valhalla in #Java 29 already? New Java feature releases should be complete every 6 hours now, which means a new LTS release every day.