Notes on implementing concise calls to constructors with type parameters

[Howard Lovatt]

Hi Neal,

Sorry for the slow response - end of FY in Australia :(

2009/5/19 Neal Gafter <neal at gafter.com>:
> I don't understand how this is all supposed to work when typeRHS is absent
> and is then inferred to be a generic type involving wildcards (e.g. List<?
> extends Number>).  Are we supposed to just drop the wildcards?

Use the bound or the raw type in the case of multiple bounds, e.g.:

    // Translation
    // Original
    Ex<? extends String> eues = new Ex<String>(); // Ex<? extends
String> eues = new();
    Ex<? super String>     eles = new Ex<String>();  // Ex<? super
String>    eles = new();

> It seems madness to ignore the types of the (constructor) parameters, the
> type parameter bounds, the relationship between the type parameters in
> typeLHS and typeRHS, etc, in doing type inference.  That's probably not
> something that can be done "later" because of compatibility.

The argument goes that in Java you specify the type on the left, so that:

int i = "s";

Is an error, whereas in Scala a mistake like:

def i = "s" // meant to be an int

Isn't caught.

Therefore the following should be an error:

Cell<Integer> c = new( "s" );

Which implies left to right inference. If you are trying to do right
to left inference, like Scala, then using the arguments to infere type
is a good choice. However, the algorithm proposed doesn't do that, so
that it catches errors like traditional Java does.

> For an example, consider
>
> class Permutation<T> implements Map<T,T> { ... }
>
> Textual substitution cannot work with this class.

I don't get the example, I must be missing something - can you elaborate please?

[spin] to next email

> One more thing.  What if "genericParametersRHS" contain captured wildcards or conjunctive types?

Did you mean LHS, can you give an example?

Have you in mind something like this?

class ExC<T extends Object & Comparable<? super T>> {}

class ExT implements Comparable<ExT> { ...  }

    // Translation                                          // Original
    ExC<ExT>   ct__ = new ExC<ExT>();   // ExC<ExT>   ct__ = new();

Or are you think of something like:

static <T extends Object & Comparable<? super T>> void method( Ex<T> e ) {}

   method( new() );

Which would translate to:

  method( new Ex() );

Because new Ex<Object & Comparable<capture of ? super T>> isn't
ilegal. IE for multiple bounds use raw types.

 -- Howard.