In addition to existing choices, including pseudo-value of ANY (which is similar to null as annotations do not allow explicit null value), it would make sense to add something to indicate use of the "most natural" binding (in case where there are more than one physical shape, but different structure; mostly for OBJECT, but possibly also ARRAY or even STRING), or, in case of type extensions, an alternative underlying format. An example of latter would be binary type (matching byte[]) that some formats (like Smile, CBOR, Protobuf) support.
While it would also be possible to add explicit BINARY type, it seems better use a logical higher-level concept of "NATIVE" or "NATURAL", since this can be used for all kinds of underlying "exotic" types; for example, type menagerie exposed by BSON.
(for background, see https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-databind/issues/865)
In addition to existing choices, including pseudo-value of
ANY(which is similar tonullas annotations do not allow explicit null value), it would make sense to add something to indicate use of the "most natural" binding (in case where there are more than one physical shape, but different structure; mostly forOBJECT, but possibly alsoARRAYor evenSTRING), or, in case of type extensions, an alternative underlying format. An example of latter would be binary type (matchingbyte[]) that some formats (like Smile, CBOR, Protobuf) support. While it would also be possible to add explicitBINARYtype, it seems better use a logical higher-level concept of "NATIVE" or "NATURAL", since this can be used for all kinds of underlying "exotic" types; for example, type menagerie exposed by BSON.Of choices,
NATURALseems slightly preferable.