JDK 8 code review request for 7007535: (reflect) Please generalize Constructor and Method

[Dr Andrew John Hughes]

On 19:21 Wed 13 Jul     , joe.darcy at oracle.com wrote:
> Hello.
> 
> Please code review my JDK 8 changes for
> 
>     7007535: (reflect) Please generalize Constructor and Method
>     http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~darcy/7007535.3
> 
> To summarize the changes, a new superclass is defined to capture the 
> common functionality of java.lang.reflect.Method and 
> java.lang.reflect.Constructor.  That superclass is named "Executable" 
> along the lines of javax.lang.model.ExecutableElement, which models 
> constructors and methods in the JSR 269 language model.
> 
> Both specification and implementation code are shared.  To preserve the 
> right @since behavior, it is common that in Method/Constructor the 
> javadoc for a method will now look like:
> 
> /**
>  * {@inheritDoc}
>  * @since 1.5
>  */
> 
> Since Executable is being created in JDK 8, it would be incorrect for 
> methods in that class to have an @since of 1.5; adding the @since in 
> Method/Constructor preserves the right information.
> 

I assume this is why we have some methods in the subclass that just
call the superclass.

> It would have been natural to also move common fields to Executable; 
> however, HotSpot treats the Constructor and Method type specially and 
> relies on the existing field ordering.  Since altering the field layout 
> would require coordinated HotSpot changes, I'm opting to not perform 
> such a change right now.  At least one abstract accessor method is 
> declared in Executable to still allow code sharing even though the 
> required field is not present.  In other cases, package private instance 
> methods on Executable are passed the needed state from overridden public 
> methods in Method/Constructor.
> 
> All java/lang/reflect regression tests pass on a full build with these 
> changes.
> 

The changes look good (though hard to read in places due to additional
whitespace changes mixed in).  Nice to see these two finally being grouped
together.

> Thanks,
> 
> -Joe

-- 
Andrew :)

Free Java Software Engineer
Red Hat, Inc. (http://www.redhat.com)

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