Donald Raab

@TheDonRaab
159 Followers
208 Following
316 Posts

Author. Java Champion. Writer of blogs. Creator of the OSS Java library Eclipse Collections. Inspired by Smalltalk. Opinions are my own.

Author of "Eclipse Collections Categorically: Level up your programming game"

Bloghttps://donraab.medium.com/
Githubhttps://github.com/donraab
Bluesky@thedonraab.bsky.social
Eclipse Collectionshttps://github.com/eclipse-collections/eclipse-collections
My first #Java 26 blog. I waited 10 years and 18 major Java releases to be able to write this blog. Enjoy! πŸ™
https://donraab.medium.com/ternary-predicate-and-pattern-matching-for-fizzbuzz-with-java-26-646c812a137b?source=friends_link&sk=e105e763a01b940ee7efec54ba256d43
Ternary, Predicate, and Pattern Matching for FizzBuzz with Java 26

Exploring FizzBuzz solutions from Java 8 to Java 26

Medium
A fun blog about Eclipse Collections.
https://www.fxjavadevblog.fr/eclipse-collections-en/

I've been writing about better building blocks in #Java. Several blogs since March 2026 including:

β€’ Empty should be empty
β€’ Lazy & eager performance
β€’ Memory costs for lazy iteration
β€’ Intention Revealing Names
β€’ Collecting Collectors
β€’ "Fat-free" Lambdas
β€’ Snow Leopards & Tribbles

Stories to inspire, including the blog linked below from March 2025. πŸ™
https://donraab.medium.com/building-better-building-blocks-7e61dc71d519?source=friends_link&sk=a2c8fab54004249e705f190e83422b2f

Building Better Building Blocks

In search of the simplification of our software building blocks

Medium

I've been writing about better building blocks in #Java. Several blogs since March 2026 including:

β€’ Empty should be empty
β€’ Lazy & eager performance
β€’ Memory costs for lazy iteration
β€’ Intention Revealing Names
β€’ Collecting Collectors
β€’ "Fat-free" Lambdas
β€’ Snow Leopards & Tribbles

Stories to inspire, including the blog linked below from March 2025. πŸ™
https://donraab.medium.com/building-better-building-blocks-7e61dc71d519?source=friends_link&sk=a2c8fab54004249e705f190e83422b2f

Building Better Building Blocks

In search of the simplification of our software building blocks

Medium

Seen on a heap.

String: 3.4 million instances
byte[]: 3.7 million instances
Stream: Hold my 🍺
MatchOps: Hold my 🍺🍺🍺

Shocked I was able to see so many ReferencePipeline$Head (Stream) and MatchOps inner class instances in a jmap heap histogram. Created and gone in a few blinks of an eye.

Cheers to the amazing developers who make object allocation blazingly fast and to the developers who build the world class Java garbage collectors. Thank you! 🍺🍺🍺

Snow Leopards and Tribbles in Java Heaps

Weighing the costs of Eclipse Collections and Java Collections/Stream.

Medium
When I saw all those lambda instances on a Java heap, the memories of anonymous inner class instances we used to create two decades ago flooded back into my memory. Thanks for posting this Groovy issue @paulk ! πŸ™ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GROOVY-12034 I'm glad to see my old memories still may have some value. Maybe this can also help Java Stream and Java Collections? @stuartmarks
[GROOVY-12034] Apply "fat-free lambda" patterns to Groovy β€” DGM `*With` family + `curryWith` helper - ASF Jira

β€œFat-Free” Lambdas in Java

From static anonymous inner classes to lambdas and method references.

Medium

"Saving the planet, one Collector at a time."

I can't un-new the billions of Collector instances that were created since 2014, but I can share ideas and alternatives for the future. Thanks for reading! πŸ™
#Java #EclipseCollections
https://donraab.medium.com/counting-and-collecting-collectors-d69b7c9aaca0?source=friends_link&sk=ef73f56026d1afcf97e869f8ae990ea9

Counting and Collecting Collectors

Zero-argument methods on Java Collectors should return static instances.

Medium
I can't predict the future. I believe we can all help invent the future when we work together. Our present is a bit murky and uncertain. If it isn't the future we want or need, maybe we shouldn't be chasing it so hard.
https://donraab.medium.com/the-future-ecbc2e3b2054?source=friends_link&sk=df1850466a2999600fd475d673e31d0b
The Future

The future always happens, and we see it just as it becomes the past.

Medium