RFR 8030848: Collections.sort(List l, Comparator) should defer to List.sort(Comparator )

[Alan Bateman]

On 10/01/2014 11:21, Paul Sandoz wrote:
> Hi,
>
> When we added the List.sort method the default implementation deferred to Collections.sort.
>
> This is the wrong way around, since any existing use of Collections.sort say with ArrayList will not avail of the optimal implementation provided by ArrayList.sort.
>
> To resolve this the implementation of Collections.sort can be moved to List.sort and Collections.sort can defer to List.sort.
>
> Code changes are here:
>
>    http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~psandoz/jdk9/JDK-8030848-Collections-sort/webrev/
>
> I made some tweaks to Arrays.sort to preserve cases when the Comparator is null.
>
> Existing tests provide good coverage and there are no regressions when i run j.u. tests locally.
>
> I am not happy with the current documentation though, i think that also requires some refactoring, moving stuff from Collections.sort to List.sort and explicitly stating what the current implementation of Collections.sort does. I believe this requires no spec changes even though it may appear so. Thoughts?
>
> Also, i am concerned that this change could cause stack overflows for list implementations that override sort and still defer to Collections.sort. Implying we should fix this for 8 or quickly in an 8u.
>
> Paul.
The implementation changes look good. I agree that the javadoc needs 
changing as it's otherwise misleading as to what the implementation 
actually does. I would think that this should go with the implementation 
change rather than as a separate change.

So is the stack overflow concern with List implementations that were 
originally developed to target JDK 7 or older? In any case, this is the 
type of change more suitable to a major release.

-Alan.