Future of explicit class initialization APIs

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Hello,
I came across JDK-8246634, which proposed to add
MethodHandles.Lookup.ensureInitialized to ensure a class is initialized
before a Method Handle is invoked. However, this appears to be contrary to
what project Leyden is aiming for. Explicit class initializations are
mostly a hurdle to condensing computations to be available before JVM
startup.

Thus, I wonder if such an API addition is worth exploring. In the original
RFE JDK-8235521, the main usages of ensureClassInitialized was barrier for
static field accessors in MH (and now VH) and to ensure the side effects
are performed by class initializers (as in SharedSecrets).

Since it seems Project Leyden has done extensive research on class
initialization patterns, I wonder if there are any other purposes for the
ensureClassInitialized or Class.forName APIs (which performs explicit
initialization), and how Leyden treats them for condensing. Such
information would be helpful for deciding about the ensureInitialized for
Method Handle API.

Please don't hesitate to reply if you have other remarks about this RFE.

Best,
Chen Liang
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