Initial JDK 11 RFR of JDK-8202385: Annotation to mark serial-related fields and methods

[Roger Riggs]

Hi Joe,

serialVersionUID is used to confirm the identity of a class so it is 
applicable to classes
implementing Externalizable as well as Serializable. (And also 
serialization of a class itself).

Thanks, Roger

On 8/10/18 1:39 PM, joe darcy wrote:
> Hi Roger,
>
> Returning to this topic, I'll add a clause in the spec for 
> serialPersistentFields and Externalizable and corresponding code in 
> the checker. Should there be a similar check for serialVersionUID in 
> an Externalizable class? It wasn't clear to me from reading the specs 
> and there are cases in the JDK of classes implementing Externalizable 
> and having serialVersionUID fields defined.
>
> Thanks,
>
> -Joe
>
>
> On 5/10/2018 2:26 PM, Roger Riggs wrote:
>> Hi Joe,
>>
>> The words are fine.
>>
>> The field serialPersistentFields is also not used with @Externalizable.
>>
>> I would guess the lint checker would flag those methods and field for 
>> warnings for Externalizable classes
>> since they might mislead to think they were used.
>>
>> Roger
>>
>>
>> On 5/10/2018 5:03 PM, joe darcy wrote:
>>> PS After additional reading, I propose to add the follow clause to 
>>> where using the annotation is not appropriate:
>>>
>>>  * <li>the {@code writeObject}, {@code readObject}, and {@code
>>>  * readObjectNoData} methods in a class that is {@code
>>>  * Externalizable}. While the {@code Externalizable} interface extends
>>>  * {@code Serializable}, those three methods are not used for
>>>  * externalizable classes.
>>>
>>> How does that sound?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> -Joe
>>>
>>>
>>> On 5/10/2018 1:22 PM, joe darcy wrote:
>>>> Hi Roger,
>>>>
>>>> Right; there are a few other distinguished methods defined for 
>>>> externalization, but they are defined on the as methods on the 
>>>> Externalizable interface as far as I can tell. The existence of 
>>>> externalization is mentioned in the javac lint bug JDK-8202385.
>>>>
>>>> I'll add as sentence indicating that the checks are for 
>>>> "Serializable but not Externalizable" classes.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> -Joe
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>