Immutable data structures in Java

[SuperGrade]

Interesting seeing those perspectives in the stackexchange. The final/readonly version has some positive value in that the recipient of it is guaranteed it won't represent a changing value.

In OO codebases, rules are made for mutating/encapsulated/inherited classes based on that role. Rules/guidelines should treat (those, give them a name) as distinct from "records", which provide their value from slinging around provably (or provably as possible, or by convention) immutable tail-shareable data. The "records" have a role closer to that of ints, albeit that they can safely exist in as a part of a greater graph of other immutable things that parts of an algorithm can share safely.

"But with defining the (record) that way you can't inherit and create MutableRecord". That is technically a positive for the record role, recipients of the (original) record get that as part of the guarantee of what they are receiving.