PROPOSAL: Simplified Varargs Method Invocation (Round II) (original) (raw)

Joseph D. Darcy Joe.Darcy at Sun.COM
Tue Mar 17 15:46:13 PDT 2009

Bob Lee wrote:

Simplified Varargs Method Invocation

AUTHOR: Bob Lee OVERVIEW FEATURE SUMMARY: When a programmer tries to invoke a varargs (variable arity) method with a non-reifiable varargs type, the compiler currently generates an "unsafe operation" warning. This proposal moves the warning from the call site to the method declaration.

The general contract when adding generics was "if your entire program compiles without unchecked warnings, you won't get heap pollution at runtime," heap pollution being where "a variable of parameterized type refers to an object that is not of that parameterized type" (JLSv3 4.12.2.1).

While warning at the declaration site is fine for a lint-style warning, the use sites merit warnings too because of heap pollution.

Generics and arrays (including varags) simply do not play well together!

-Joe

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