Method Handles - An Overlooked Gem in the Java Platform
Join us and unlock the Power of Method Handles. Is your Java codebase still leaning on the clunky, "ancient" Reflection API for dynamic tasks? It’s time to move past the shortcomings of the old ways and embrace a tool that’s been hiding in plain sight for over a decade. Join us for an evening with Java Champion Ben Evans—Technical Lead at IBM and author of Java in a Nutshell—as he demystifies the Method Handles API.
Date: 24th Feb 2026
Timing:
6:00 PM (UTC): Live stream kicks off
6:10 PM (UTC): Method Handles - An Overlooked Gem in the Java Platform by Ben Evans
7:00 PM (UTC): That’s a wrap, live stream ends
The Method Handles API was first introduced in Java 7 (almost 15 years ago), but despite this maturity, seems not to have fully permeated into the collective consciousness of developers. Instead, the ancient Reflection API is still more familiar, despite its serious shortcomings and overall inferiority.
In this talk, Ben Evans will explain what Method Handles are used for, how they differ from Reflection and why they are an extremely useful tool for modern advanced Java programming. We'll cover:
* Method types and Lookups
* Method and Var Handles
* Lambda expressions
* Inplementing Records
* Replacing Unsafe
* Rewiring the internals of Reflection
To conclude the talk, we'll look at a set of use cases where Method Handles are an excellent general-purpose tool for building dynamic capabilities in Java."
Speaker
Ben Evans, Senior Principal Software Engineer at Red Hat
Ben works at IBM, where he is the Technical Lead for Observability for Red Hat Cloud Native Runtimes. He also co-founded jClarity, a JVM performance optimisation company (acquired by Microsoft in 2019). He is a former member of the JCP Executive Committee and helped define standards for the Java ecosystem for 6 years. Ben is a Java Champion; 3-time JavaOne Rockstar Speaker; author of "Optimising Java", the new edition of "Java in a Nutshell" and "The Well-Grounded Java Developer". He is a regular speaker on the Java platform, performance, architecture, concurrency, startups and related topics.
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kittylyst/
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Hosted by Ana-Maria Mihalceanu
Java Developer Advocate
Ana is a Java Champion Alumni, Developer Advocate for the Java Platform Group, guest author of the book "DevOps tools for Java Developers", and a constant adopter of challenging technical scenarios involving Java-based frameworks and multiple cloud providers. She actively supports technical communities' growth through knowledge sharing and enjoys curating content for conferences as a program committee member. To learn more about/from her, follow her on Twitter @ammbra1508.
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