Code Review Request for 6578042

[Darryl Mocek]

I've modified the fix per feedback (thanks all).  System.clearProperty 
now attempts to get the property with the specified key.  If there is 
such a property, and the value is a String, remove the property and 
return the value removed, otherwise return null (if it is null) or throw 
CCE (if it's not null and is not a String...do not remove the property 
here).  Webrev can be found here:

http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~sherman/darryl/6578042/webrev

Darryl


On 11/12/2011 04:14 AM, Alan Bateman wrote:
> On 11/11/2011 19:37, Darryl Mocek wrote:
>> Returning null if the value is not a String gives the impression that 
>> there was no property with that key when the property may have been 
>> there and may in fact have been removed. 
> That's a fair point and probably enough to conclude that this approach 
> should be dismissed.
>
> The toString approach is inconsistent so I think this brings us back 
> to the original suggestion which is to specify that CCE is thrown (as 
> it always has) but without side effects (meaning it doesn't remove the 
> property). I think this is the best we can do with this broken API.
>
> :
>>
>> I would prefer it if Properties didn't allow non-String keys and 
>> values at all since they're supposed to be Strings (by API 
>> implication) and that Properties not extend Hashtable or extends 
>> Hashtable<String, String>, but I digress.
> Properties goes back to JDK1.0 and has a warning in its javadoc for 
> many years to discourage inserting keys or values that are not 
> Strings. I'm not sure whether we can do much about it now without 
> risking compatibility issues.
>
> -Alan.