MethodHandle - What is it all about?

Question

I am studying new features of JDK 1.7 and I just can\'t get it what MethodHandle is designed for? I understand (direct) invocation of the static method (and use of Core Refl

Answer 1

java.lang.reflect.Method is relatively slow and expensive in terms of memory. Method handles are supposed to be a "lightweight" way of passing around pointers to functions that the JVM has a chance of optimising. As of JDK8 method handles aren't that well optimised, and lambdas are likely to be initially implemented in terms of classes (as inner classes are).