[typesafe properties access](was Re: For further consideration...

[rssh at gradsoft.com.ua]

 Just note, that similar problem was quite elegant resolved in JPA-2.0 API
http://in.relation.to/Bloggers/ATypesafeCriteriaQueryAPIForJPA


> On Monday 30 March 2009, Mark Thornton wrote:
>> David Goodenough wrote:
>> > 5 years as near to indefinitely as matters).  I need compiler
>> > checkability for field references now.
>>
>> Define an annotation
>>
>> @interface @fieldReference {
>>     String name();
>> }
>>
>> class MyClass {
>>     @fieldReference("myField") static FieldRef FIELD_REF;
>>
>>     static {
>>        // use reflection to set initialise static fields with
>> @fieldReference annotations
>>     }
>> }
>>
>> You could use an annotation processor to verify that the @fieldReference
>> named valid fields and was attached to a suitable reference field. There
>> are probably other ways of doing this, but it does give you the compile
>> time check you want without requiring a language change.
>>
>> Regards
>> Mark Thornton
>
> My first instinct when I read this was that this was another example of
> moving the problem to a better place (the place where the field originates
> rather than the place where you use it) but that it was still uncheckable.
>
> But then you suggest using the annotation processor to do the verification
> process, and that does seem to answer the question.  Its odd that none
> of the potential users of this (Binding frameworks, Criteria like APIs,
> and
> PropertyChangeSupport) have used this approach which makes me a
> little suspicious.
>
> The only niggle that strikes me immediately is that existing beans will
> not be suitably annotated, and this includes all the Swing screen widgets
> (subclassing or a helper class can solve that as it is a well defined set)
> and classes built by schema scrapers from places like existing SQL
> databases, or from XML schemas.  These would have to have these added
> manually, or the tools that do the extraction would have to be modified.
> But that is not a show stopper, its just a little extra work to be done.
>
> I will have to try this and see if it solves the problem.  If it does then
> I
> will happly withdraw my proposal, and stop getting in everyone's hair.
>
> David
>
>