Possible Bug in javac unchecked cast detection

[Tom Schindl]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the confirmation. I'll file a bug against javac then. What I
don't yet understand how one can fix such a situation without a warning
or why JLS does not allow the cast.

I can fix the unchecked warning with but then (if turned on in my
Eclipse I get a warning about an unnecessary typecast - so do IntelliJ
users)

b = (SubInterfaceB<String>)(BaseInterface<String>)a;

which of course is correct because one does not need to cast
SubInterfaceA<T> to BaseInterface<T>. The only solution to work without
any warning suppression is using an intermediate variable.

BaseInterface<T> temp = a;
b = (SubInterfaceB<String>)temp;

what i don't fully grasp then why JLS does not directly allow me to cast
from SubInterfaceA<T> to SubInterfaceB<T>.

Tom

On 01.05.14 20:41, Alex Buckley wrote:
> Eclipse is right. Given the interface declarations below, a cast from
> SubInterfaceA<String> to SubInterfaceB<String> is unchecked. By JLS
> 5.5.2, an unchecked warning is due unless @SuppressWarnings is in
> effect; lint mode doesn't matter.
> 
> Alex
> 
> On 5/1/2014 9:11 AM, Tom Schindl wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> While cleaning up the javafx codebase (who has a lot of use of generics)
>> I came across casts the eclipse java compiler marks as unchecked while
>> javac -Xlint:all does not warn about.
>>
>> The following snippet shows gist of the problem:
>>
>>> package a;
>>>
>>> public class CastTest {
>>>     public interface BaseInterface<T> {
>>>
>>>     }
>>>     
>>>     public interface SubInterfaceA<T> extends BaseInterface<T> {
>>>
>>>     }
>>>     
>>>     public interface SubInterfaceB<T> extends BaseInterface<T> {
>>>
>>>     }
>>>     
>>>     public static void main(String[] args) {
>>>         SubInterfaceA<String> a = null;
>>>         SubInterfaceB<String> b = (SubInterfaceB<String>) a; // javac
>>> does not warn
>>>         b = (SubInterfaceB<String>)(BaseInterface<String>)a;
>>>
>>>     }
>>> }
>>
>> I first thought of a bug in the eclipse compiler but they claim their
>> compiler is correct because the spec says:
>>
>>
>>> "A cast from a type S to a parameterized type (§4.5) T is unchecked
>>>     unless at least one of the following is true:
>>>     *  S <: T
>>>     *  All of the type arguments (§4.5.1) of T are unbounded wildcards
>>>     *  T <: S and S has no subtype X other than T where the type
>>> arguments
>>>        of X are not contained in the type arguments of T."
>>
>> So before fileing a bug and start fixing the javafx code I wanted to get
>> feedback from the compiler gurus on this list who is right and who is
>> wrong.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Tom
>>