<html><body><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000"><div><br></div><div><br></div><hr id="zwchr" data-marker="__DIVIDER__"><div data-marker="__HEADERS__"><blockquote style="border-left:2px solid #1010FF;margin-left:5px;padding-left:5px;color:#000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;"><b>From: </b>"Brian Goetz" <brian.goetz@oracle.com><br><b>To: </b>"David Alayachew" <davidalayachew@gmail.com><br><b>Cc: </b>"amber-dev" <amber-dev@openjdk.org><br><b>Sent: </b>Wednesday, December 7, 2022 8:04:31 PM<br><b>Subject: </b>Re: Finding the right keyword for new features (was "Re: Could we change the syntax for when clauses?")<br></blockquote></div><div data-marker="__QUOTED_TEXT__"><blockquote style="border-left:2px solid #1010FF;margin-left:5px;padding-left:5px;color:#000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;"><font size="4"><font face="monospace">Imagine we did this, and we
added a dozen or so new #keywords to the language over the next
ten years. Now imagine you're a new developer learning Java.
In addition to all the struggling with learning to program and
learning the language, you're now also guaranteed to be
distracted with "how do I remember whether it's "if" or "#if,
and why can't the stupid compiler just figure it out for me?".
And the explanation "Oh, that was added after the Great
Sharpification" will not be compelling. <br><br>
As a concrete example, this was tried in Java 5 with
"@interface". To this day, people complain about this, and with
good reason: it is a gratuitous departure from the rest of the
language. <br><br>
We should strive to make the features we add look like they were
there all along. </font></font></blockquote><div><br></div><div>#yes, #It's #an #effect #that #we #can #already #see #with #the #APIs, #every #year, #i've #students #asking #me #why Map.get() #does #not #return #an Optional #or #why java.util.RandomAccess #is #not #an #annotation.<br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div><br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div>#Rémi<br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div><br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div>#PS: #to #make #my #answer #more #simple #and #expressive, #I've #prefixed #every #words #which #is #not #a #Java #class #or a #method #by #the #sign ##.<br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div><br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><blockquote style="border-left:2px solid #1010FF;margin-left:5px;padding-left:5px;color:#000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;"><font size="4"><font face="monospace"><br><br></font></font><br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/7/2022 1:55 PM, David Alayachew
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:CAA9v-_O+JC+E0bsq0ekO0HDHyvDTxbcGm_Xi-FC+q0KX_EEuyw@mail.gmail.com">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:monospace">I have
one more question I'd like to ask. Aside from this, I think
we've explored the idea well enough, so I'll leave the topic
alone for good.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:monospace"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:monospace">Are we
opposed to doing something like this?</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:monospace"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:monospace">
case Integer i #when i > 0</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:monospace"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:monospace">My goal
here is to use the # symbol (or any other unused symbol) as
sort of a springboard into a larger pool of potential
signifiers. You get simplicity and expressiveness for the cost
of one more character that is currently unused (to my
knowledge). Furthermore, the introduction of the unused
character can help with visually separating the pattern from
the guard, but with minimal loudness. And of course, being
unused means that it meets the needs for Java language parsing
folks too.<br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:monospace"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:monospace">Thank
you for your time and help!</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:monospace">David
Alayachew<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
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