closures after all?

[Neal Gafter]

I also heard a rumor about extension methods.  If so, that would suggest a
much simpler approach to ARM blocks.  From
http://www.javac.info/ExtensionMethods.html:

One of the biggest advantages of extension methods is that they enable more
flexible extension of the language moving forward. For example, suppose a
new Automated Resource Management statement were defined in terms of
invoking an acquire() method, and then later invoking a release() method on
the result of the earlier acquire(). Clearly existing APIs such as Closeable
do not implement this protocol, but by providing static factory methods they
could be made to act as if they do. Such a statement could then be easily
retrofitted onto other resource APIs, such as
java.util.concurrent.locks.Lock (an interface), simply by providing
extension methods. This retrofitting introduces no breaking changes, since
the underlying APIs are not changed.

-Neal

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 12:46 AM, Mark Mahieu <markmahieu at googlemail.com>wrote:

> *sigh*
>
> I suppose I should have guessed that a deliberately silly bit of code like
> this would get linked to or reproduced in edited form elsewhere (without my
> 'tongue-in-cheek' disclaimer).
>
> So, for the bloody record:
>
> 1) I have absolutely no idea whether it will ever be considered valid Java.
> 2) Even if it will be valid, I don't think it's remotely representative of
> code which will use ARM, or closures, or both.
> 3) Even if it will be valid, and someone decides to write something like
> this, I don't think it will be hard to understand what it does.
> 4) 'YOUR HEAD A SPLODE' refers to the mixing of ARM and closures, which
> some on this list may find mildly ironic.  It was not intended as serious
> commentary on the potential uses of those features, individually or in
> tandem.  If I have serious concerns to raise at some point, I probably won't
> choose to back them up by quoting an animated mexican wrestler.
>
> On the other hand, I was serious about it being interesting to investigate
> the interaction between the various language features.
>
> Sincere apologies for any confusion (!)
>
> Mark
>
>
> On 18 Nov 2009, at 23:49, Mark Mahieu wrote:
>
> > Well it'll be interesting to see the official details, and (to bring it
> back on topic) see how it interacts with Coin's language enhancements.
> >
> > // tongue in cheek
> > try (Closeable closure = #() { System.out.println("YOUR HEAD A SPLODE");
> }) {
> >       // ...
> > }
> >
> >
> > Mark
>
>
>