list literal gotcha and suggestion

[Paul Benedict]

Reinier,

I am glad serious opposition doesn't have a time limit. The recent
activity on the list indicates, at least to me, that there is growing
consensus that the current proposal is inadequate. Those raising
issues (definitely more than two) have made very good arguments on the
limitations and pit-falls of the current syntax. Regardless,
intentions are good. The discussion is driving towards enhancing and
correcting -- not torpedoing -- the proposal.

As things stand, these are the issues:
* Should the syntax of initializing remain uniform in Java?
* Are new static methods a decent enhancement regardless of this proposal?
* Are collection literals immutable or mutable?
* Can operations be performed on the collection literal? 3.toString()
is illegal -- why would { 1, 2 }.toSet() ?

Paul