The original motivation for the name Optional is that it reads better and is more descriptive.

Option:

• means a choice - not whether a value is optional
• does not read well - "option string" is not English; "option" is a noun

Optional:

• means a choice, specifically whether something exists or doesn't exist
• reads well - "optional string" is English; "optional" is an adjective

However, Optional is not clearly distinct from java.util.Optional and is an uncommon name for an option/maybe type.

Example usage:

/*
 * In reality this would be something where we don't 
 * know the value, but we are sure the optional has 
 * a value, rather than here where we know the value.
 */

class MyValueHolder {
  Optional<String> value = Optional.absent();
  void set(String s) { value = Optional.present(s); }
  Optional<String> get() { return value; }
}

MyValueHolder holder = ...;
holder.set("abc");
String s = holder.value().require("holder to have a value");

A list of things that purposely have been left out of Optional so they can be done later:

• #42
• #41
• #43

This issue lists Renovate updates and detected dependencies. Read the Dependency Dashboard docs to learn more.

Open

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• Update dependency gradle to v8.10
• Update junit5 monorepo to v5.11.0 (org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter-params, org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter-engine, org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter-api)

Detected dependencies

• Check this box to trigger a request for Renovate to run again on this repository

• #28
• #30
• #24
• #29

Libraries such as JSpecify, Java Core Libraries and Guava tend to have broad packages.

This:

• allows for package-private members to be widely accessible from other classes
• prevents over-categorizing of classes