Ephemerons for Java

[Jochen Theodorou]

Hi all,

This is kind of a feature request... What I would like to have is a new 
Reference variant that allows me to keep an instance alive for as long 
as the class of the object is alive, without the instance keeping the 
class alive.

In the end I would like to be able to store values, but don´t keep the 
classes involved from being garbage collected. I am especially thinking 
here about a combination of ClassValue and this Ephemeron (?) that 
allows me to cache values on classes, without preventing class unloading.

Is there any chance for this making its way into the JVM? What would 
prevent this?

bye Jochen