Dear Larry Ellison,

It has come to my attention that James Gosling now works for you. It is my recommendation that you remedy this situation immediately. As justification I present the following Java snippet:

Object obj = new Object(); 

// ...

if (obj != null) {

}

Do you really want someone working for you at Oracle who designs a language where you must use a binary operator to check whether a reference is null? Consider the obvious alternative:

Object obj = new Object();

//...

if (obj) {

}

Don't you agree that this is more Zen-like? Me, too. I'm so glad you're in charge now.

That is all.

Best wishes,

Jon