RFR: 8159055: ImageIcon.setImage and ImageIcon(Image) constructor can't handle null parameter [v10]

[Alexey Ivanov]

On Thu, 19 Jun 2025 10:14:42 GMT, Alexey Ivanov <aivanov at openjdk.org> wrote:

>> Prasanta Sadhukhan has updated the pull request incrementally with two additional commits since the last revision:
>> 
>>  - Test fix
>>  - javadoc wording..clear image desscription if image is null
>
> src/java.desktop/share/classes/javax/swing/ImageIcon.java line 389:
> 
>> 387:         this.image = image;
>> 388:         if (image == null) {
>> 389:             this.description = null;
> 
> We must not change the description. Why do we enforce resetting the description to `null`?
> 
> The app is still free to change the description to an arbitrary value using `setDescription` even if the image is `null`.

**I *strongly* disagree to changing the value of `description`** here, even though [I brought up this concern](https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/pull/25767#discussion_r2150249349).

This does not make sense. Consider the following code snippet:


        ImageIcon im = new ImageIcon();
        // Both image and description are null

        im.setDescription("whatever");
        // Now image is null, and description isn't null

        im.setImage(null);
        // Why does description change to null?


Both `image` and `description` are two independent fields of `ImageIcon` object, each has its own getter and setter, and each can be changed independently. We should not enforce the order of calls: if an app developer wants to set the image to `null`, temporarily or not, the value of the description has to be preserved.

-------------

PR Review Comment: https://git.openjdk.org/jdk/pull/25767#discussion_r2158820017