title: Why do people still use primitive types in Java?
body: <p>Since Java 5, we've had boxing/unboxing of primitive types so that <code>int</code> is wrapped to be <code>java.lang.Integer</code>, and so and and so forth. </p>
  
  <p>I see a lot of new Java projects lately (that <em>definitely</em> require a JRE of at least version 5, if not 6) that are using <code>int</code> rather than <code>java.lang.Integer</code>, though it's much more convenient to use the latter, as it has a few helper methods for converting to <code>long</code> values et al. </p>
  
  <p>Why do some <strong>still</strong> use primitive types in Java? Is there any tangible benefit?</p>