Proposal: Access to Generic Type Parameters at Compile-Time

[David Walend]

Hi Mark,

On Mar 17, 2009, at 12:22 PM, Mark Mahieu wrote:
> Hi David,
>
> On 17 Mar 2009, at 02:37, David Walend wrote:
>>
>> interface Path<ThruGraph extends Digraph>
>>     extends Digraph<ThruGraph.Node,ThruGraph.Edge>
>>     {
>>         ThruGraph.Node getHead();
>>         ...
>>     }
>
> So, if I were the author of Digraph and I decided to rename its type  
> parameters (to N and E for example), your Path interface would no  
> longer compile?

That's correct. Changing the name of a type parameter would have the
same potential impact as renaming other public/protected/default- 
accessible parts of the class, like an inner class, a static method or  
a static member field.

Changing an extends or super clause risks breaking something. Adding  
or removing type parameters almost always breaks downstream code that  
uses the class. The name of the type parameter is (I think) the only  
thing you can safely change in the parameter list currently.

I think this problem would come up far less often than breaking the
interface by adding an extends or super clause to an existing
parameter. Is it a big enough problem to add to the disadvantages list?

Thanks,

Dave

David Walend
david at walend.net