[hibernate-dev] mutable versus immutable natural keys

One of the enhancements I want to get into 4.1 is HHH-2879 / HHH-2896 regarding adding an actual API for entity loading by natural key. However, I think at the same time we should be more explicit and consistent about what it means when we say that a mapped natural key is mutable or immutable. Basically, is "immutable" a hint from the user that the values cannot change (so that we can perform certain optimizations)? Or is "immutable" a mandate that we have to verify the natural key has not changed, either through Hibernate or "behind" us? Today we kind of have a blend of those two. Personally I think we should take it as a hint from the user that the values will not change. WDYT? -- steve(a)hibernate.org http://hibernate.org