What exactly do you have in mind. Using '&0xff' is annoying but well whatever. Perhaps 23y ago, applying the bitwise and would be a novelty but now it's a minor

What exactly do you have in mind. Using '&0xff' is annoying but well whatever. Perhaps 23y ago, applying the bitwise and would be a novelty but now it's a minor inconvenience. The way java is built in internally I can quite see another primitive type popping up.