Improving compiler messages for preview API

[Jonathan Gibbons]

On 8/3/19 7:47 PM, Joe Darcy wrote:
>
> Hi Jon,
>
> On 8/3/2019 1:57 PM, Jonathan Gibbons wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 6/21/19 10:38 AM, Joe Darcy wrote:
>>>
>>> PS Prototype version of what this sort of message improvement could 
>>> look like, initially coded with a JDK-internal annotation type as 
>>> opposed to one in java.lang:
>>>
>>> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~darcy/8226585.0/
>>>
>> Joe,
>>
>> Could you expand more on the expected use of the "feature" string?
>>
>>    48     /**
>>    49      * Name of the preview feature the annotated API is associated
>>    50      * with.
>>    51      */
>>    52     String feature() default "";
>>
>>
>> Could you maybe give some examples of what feature strings might be, 
>> and how you might expect the string to be used, especially in a 
>> non-English locale? Would you expect to see any enforcement of the 
>> set of permitted strings?
>>
>>
>
> Hmm. What I had in mind was a way of approximating the 
> feature-specific messages javac generates for language features where 
> the feature is named.
>
> So instead of a message like
>
> 1629 # 0: symbol, 1: symbol
> 1630 compiler.note.preview.api=\
> 1631     {0} in {1} is a preview API and may be removed in a future 
> release
>
> a message closer to
>
>      {0} in {1} is a preview API associated with {2} and may be 
> removed in a future release
>
> If the string is not used in the compiler message due to localization 
> issues, it might still be informative as part of the javadoc of the 
> method, especially if some APIs are less obviously associated with a 
> feature than the string method to text blocks.
>
> HTH,
>
> -Joe
>

If the string was well enough defined, it could be used as a key in a 
resource file to generate a localized string. Yes, it would mean 
updating the resource file in each release, but that would be just a 
small part of providing a preview feature in a release. Indeed, it could 
be a required part of defining a preview feature to specify the string 
to use in preview API annotations.

-- Jon

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