A simpler model for repeating annotations

[Alex Buckley]

Broadly speaking, all the rules in 8misc.pdf section 9.7 - about combinations of base and container annotations - still apply. In particular, it's perfectly legal to have @Foo @FooContainer(...) together. Mike Keith's comments revealed that EE frameworks that read annotations take considerable care over this case. So, I would expect get[Declared]Annotations(Class) to return contained annotations along with any singular base annotation present. See 8misc.pdf example 1.2-3:

  @Foo(0) @FooContainer({@Foo(1), at Foo(2)}) class A {}

  A.class.get[Declared]Annotations(Foo.class) = [ @Foo(0), @Foo(1), @Foo(2) ]
  A.class.get[Declared]Annotations(FooContainer.class) = [ @FooContainer(...) ]

Alex

----- Original Message -----
This spec is way better,
to be sure, do you agree that getDeclaredAnnotations can be written like 
this:

A[] getDeclaredAnnotations(Class<A> annotationClass) {
   Repeatable repeatable = 
annotationClass.getDeclaredAnnotation(Repetable.class);
   if (repeatable != null) {
     Annotation container = getDeclaredAnnotation(repeatable.value());
     if (container != null) {   // if there is a container annotation, 
no single annotation can be present ?
       return (A[])callValuesByReflection(container);
     }
   }
   A annotation = getDeclaredAnnotation(annotationClass);
   if (annotation == null)
     return (A[])Arrays.newInstance(annotationClass, 0)
   A[] annotations = (A[])Arrays.newInstance(annotationClass, 1);
   annotations[0] = annotation;
   return annotations;
}

cheers,
Rémi