@jjohnstn this looks a bit strange and it seems final is not added to all instanceof checks (where I assume we likely never modify variables used in instanceof checks anyways)

The "add final" cleanup was modified to start with a fresh AST and apply previous cleanups. So, if you asked for the pattern instanceof cleanup, the final cleanup will see the new pattern variable that was added and will make it final if conditions are appropriate. In the past, the final cleanup would not have seen the new pattern instanceof expression.

@jjohnstn so while your explanation seems valid to me, I suspect something is wrong here, because I would not have expected this because we only enabled to make fields as

Add final modifier to private fields

but not for local variables or parameters...

So is my expectation maybe wrong?

Actually, in this case, the declaration of handle that is used to make the pattern instanceof variable is declared final and casts object to HandleObject. The code is doing the right thing. You have a final HandleObject called handle in both cases.

I think I begin to understand so because previously

final HandleObject handle= (HandleObject) object;

is defined final this is applied to the instanceof as well.. now it seems obvious, thanks for the pointer!