Yesterday, Mark Reinhold introduced the idea of a java.util.random subpackage[1]. Obviously, moving java.util.Random into that subpackage is not currently an option, as that would break backwards compatibility. Assuming the subpackage is created, it would make sense to ultimately move java.util.Random into it. For that reason, I propose a new language feature that could make this possible:
package java.util.random previously java.util; The syntax isn't important at the moment, but this mechanism should allow for users to run previously-compiled code with newer versions of Java, even if their code points to a class that has since been moved to a different package. To eliminate potential bugs, users compiling new code shouldn't be allowed to reference java.util.Random, even if java.util.random.Random states that it previously resided in java.util. I'm curious what you all would think of this, as it is not just applicable to this single example. There have been plenty of times that I've realized that my packages were named badly, but I'm forced to stick with that naming (unless I want my users to have to modify their code). Thanks, Jacob Glickman [1]: http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/core-libs-dev/2019-June/060995.html
