RFR (S) 8151223: String concatenation fails with implicit toString() on package-private class

[Remi Forax]

Thinking a little bit more about backward compatibility,
there is a way to make the string concatenation meta-protocol "more binary compatible".

Use Objects in the descriptor of invokedynamic and send a string as bootstrap constant encoding the declared types provided by javac.
At runtime, in the bootstrap method, when decoding the declared types, if a type from the declared types is not accessible, substitute it by Object.
Then in the generated bytecode, insert a cast to the declared type (or use asType() for strategies based on the method handles).

Because we do the casts upfront before calling toString(), we don't loose the precise types
(obviously, we hope here that the code that does the concatenation will be inlined with the code the rest of the code
otherwise, we will pay the price of a cast).

That's said, i'm not sure it's a good idea to implement that,
Java is not expected to use erased type at runtime to help backward compatibility.

regards,
Rémi

----- Mail original -----
> De: "Aleksey Shipilev" <aleksey.shipilev at oracle.com>
> À: "Maurizio Cimadamore" <maurizio.cimadamore at oracle.com>, compiler-dev at openjdk.java.net
> Envoyé: Mardi 8 Mars 2016 14:59:22
> Objet: Re: RFR (S) 8151223: String concatenation fails with implicit	toString() on package-private class
> 
> On 03/08/2016 02:14 PM, Maurizio Cimadamore wrote:
> > On 08/03/16 11:12, Maurizio Cimadamore wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> On 07/03/16 22:45, Aleksey Shipilev wrote:
> >>> I don't think it was redundant: Object.class passes isAccessible check,
> >>> and we exit the loop either with a concrete subclass of Object, or
> >>> Object itself. But I agree we may want to check for Tag.NONE too.
> >> Sorry - you are obviously right here - Object is always accessible, so
> >> your code was indeed correct. Feel free to change it back if you like!
> >>
> >> Maurizio
> > Also one last nit:
> > 
> > Type componentType = ((Type.ArrayType) originalType).getComponentType();
> > 
> > 
> > getComponentType is an API method - there's an internal routine:
> > Types.elemtype which works on any type, and thus you could avoid the cast.
> 
> Thanks Maurizio, fixed both nits:
>   http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~shade/8151223/webrev.03/
> 
> -Aleksey
> 
> 
>