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<font size="4" face="monospace">The question of automatically
statically importing certain "important" methods was a fraught
one, and the more we investigated it, the more we regretted
opening this particular Pandora's Box. <br>
<br>
The reality is that any method that is static-imported by the
language, effectively is elevated to a "language feature", just
one with a regularized syntax. And this is a pretty high bar. We
started with `println`, which almost everyone thought "obviously"
was important enough to be important enough to clear that bar.
But once we started investigating, the "next most important"
method could barely jump 10% as high as println did, and it went
downhill from there. Indeed, it seems we were mostly trying to
extrapolate from a single example. <br>
<br>
As part of the exploration, we looked at the set of "built in"
functions in other languages, such as Python, and asked ourselves:
"would we be proud of this set of built-in functions." And the
answer was that it was really kind of an accidental grab bag, and
we surely didn't want that -- and we couldn't imagine how we
wouldn't end up with that. <br>
<br>
The inevitable bikeshedding of "please elevate my favorite method"
would indeed be a ongoing, contentious-at-times, expensive
process. But that's not even the worst part -- we would surely
end up with yet another accidental grab bag, which does not help
users form a coherent mental model of these specially-treated
functions. <br>
<br>
So we are actually feeling quite good about the conclusion of
"nothing is auto-static-imported". <br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 3/3/2025 9:14 PM, mirage wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:CAGEyRdBg47-L+mbyZuEkiEFt7cq8SJKfGez12bUv+=_PwHNZJQ@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="auto">Still, I believe it would be worth
considering—perhaps in a future JEP—the implicit import of some
of the most commonly used static methods in java.lang (maybe
including IO, Math, and utility methods in wrapper classes), not
just for compact source files but for all file types. I’ve
always found it odd to limit such improvements to “classless
main files” or files with an implicit class declaration. Many
utility methods in java.lang are so fundamental and universally
used that it’s unlikely anyone would bring in a third-party
library just to parse a string to a numeric value or vice versa.
Therefore, the rationale for requiring explicit class
declarations (to identify the source of these methods and
distinguish between similarly named methods in different
classes) doesn’t seem very compelling in these basic cases.
Removing the implicit static import from this JEP leaves the
door open for a future JEP to go further.</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">I realize the main challenge is deciding which
static methods deserve this special treatment (and there will
always be people advocating for their personal favorites).
However, these methods could be introduced gradually, and the
implicit import wouldn’t break source compatibility.</div>
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