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"Interfaces can now define static methods. "

Twenty years for that one ; )

zomg. Another one debated at length through flamewars on Usenet and ##java. And now it's here. Feeling good : )

The number of times I've implemented something by convention due to the lack of this construct... One common use case is that I like "value objects" -- an AccountId class vs. just a String or an Integer. I usually implement them using some sort of internment internally -- WeakHashmap, Guava Interner, etc. When reading from a wire format and using value objects, one must presume the existence of a fromString(String key), fromInt, etc. method. I'd love to state explicitly that all ValueObjects have particular, generic-ified static constructors. Much cleaner. And, it avoids the cliche Java programmer shame of implementing AbstractValueObjectFactory, etc. Some static state, if isolated and properly managed, makes life easier.

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