<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><blockquote type="cite"><p>Has the optional classes been verified to serialize/deserialize correctly?</p></blockquote><div>They are not serializable. </div><blockquote type="cite"><p>Finally, are these utilities critical to some other part JDK 8 that they were pushed out now as opposed to JDK 9?</p><div><br></div></blockquote>They are part of the libraries being added by JSR-335 / Project Lambda. There is extensive discussion on Optional on lambda-dev and the JSR 335 EG lists. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div></body></html>