JDK7 language specification issue with MethodHandle

[joe.darcy at oracle.com]

Hi Neal.

Neither Project Coin nor JSR 334 have covered any JSR 292-related 
features for some time, although discussions of JSR 292-related features 
did take place on coin-dev in the past.

Changes to the JSR 292 specification to clarify the Java language 
changes that support MethodHandle are in process.  Such changes include 
the definition of polymorphic signatures and extended rules for 
compile-time method resolution.

Please direct all further inquiries related to JSR 292 to its spec lead, 
John Rose.

Regards,

-Joe

On 4/4/2011 9:57 PM, Neal Gafter wrote:
> Project coin took on the task of specifying language changes related 
> to method handles,  invokeDynamic, and other jsr292-related things.  
> In the end project coin's leaders decided not to specify any Java 
> language changes in jdk7 for jsr292.
>
> The documentation for MethodHandle (see "Method Handle Compilation" in 
> <http://download.java.net/jdk7/docs/api/java/lang/invoke/MethodHandle.html>) 
> appears to contradict the requirements of the Java Language 
> Specification by describing compiler behavior that does not conform to 
> the requirements of the JLS.  I have not checked, but I would not be 
> surprised if jdk7's javac also fails to satisfy the specification in 
> this area.  This is the kind of backdoor language change that Java's 
> corporate owner has consistently considered a clear violation of Java 
> trademark licensing requirements.
>
> Are there any plans to resolve this?  Are the required language 
> changes going into the JLS through some other mechanism?
>
> Cheers,
> Neal