What methods should go into a java.util.Objects class in JDK 7?

[Joseph D. Darcy]

David Holmes - Sun Microsystems wrote:
> Stephen Colebourne said the following on 10/07/09 18:10:
>> BTW, I don't accept the argument that one and only one way to do 
>> something is part of the JDK. 
>
> While the JDK is far from a model example of providing "one way" to do 
> something, that doesn't mean we should gratuitously add superfluous 
> and redundant functionality. 

The JDK has a long history of providing convenience methods.  For 
example, we have PrintStream.format and PrintStream.printf which are 
just two names for the same functionality.

> Type.valueOf is an established pattern for converting types.
>
> The JDK is already severely bloated - new APIs should pay their own way.

Getting rid of more than half a dozen implementations of equals(Object, 
Object) should just in the JDK should more than pay the for the entire 
Objects class ;-)

-Joe