RFR: 8305734: BitSet.get(int, int) always returns the empty BitSet when the Integer.MAX VALUE is set

[Andy-Tatman]

On Fri, 14 Apr 2023 15:53:41 GMT, Alan Bateman <alanb at openjdk.org> wrote:

>> @AlanBateman 
>> It is a known issue that size() may return a negative integer, see [JDK-8230557](https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8230557), and the accepted workaround is to interpret the returned integer as an unsigned value and convert the output to a long. This same workaround works if a user would call length() with Integer.MAX_VALUE set. Changing the specification to reject setting Integer.MAX_VALUE may end up breaking the implementation of clients who rely on setting Integer.MAX_VALUE and use this workaround.
>> 
>> Furthermore, the other methods (including ones that use length()) still function correctly whether or not the Integer.MAX_VALUE bit is set, except for get(int,int) as reported here. For example, clear(int, int) works as expected if Integer.MAX_VALUE is set as length() then is not called.
>> Changing the specification to reject setting Integer.MAX_VALUE may break user code that use this bit and/or users that rely on the above workaround.
>> 
>> So while changing the specifications is possible, it can potentially break existing clients. The change suggested in this pull request avoids this and instead fixes the internal bug of the get function locally, without affecting the other methods and without affecting existing clients.
>
>> So while changing the specifications is possible, it can potentially break existing clients. The change suggested in this pull request avoids this and instead fixes the internal bug of the get function locally, without affecting the other methods and without affecting existing clients.
> 
> I think it will require re-visting the spec, maybe deprecating and/or introducing new methods, it's unfortunate that this wasn't recognised in JDK-8230557.
> 
> Update: @stuart-marks has added a comment to JDK-8230557 on the workaround that someone added to that issue in 2019.

@AlanBateman I would be happy to fill out the CSR, but unfortunately I don't think I am able to currently as I'm not an author on OpenJDK and as such don't have a JBS account. (I reported the bug through the Oracle site, rather than through bugs.openjdk.org .)
Would you be able to help out with this?

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PR Comment: https://git.openjdk.org/jdk/pull/13388#issuecomment-1518016687