Parameter reflection: parameters with "" as their name

[Alex Buckley]

JVM implementers on this list should note the explicit new constraint 
that an unqualified name (JVMS 4.2.2) must be non-zero-length. I would 
not like it to come as a surprise when JVMS8 appears in the Proposed 
Final Draft of JSR 337.

Alex

On 1/24/2013 12:47 PM, Eric McCorkle wrote:
> On 01/24/13 15:35, Alex Buckley wrote:
>> // See new recipients of this mail.
>>
>> // No re-posting of content between lists with different licenses, please.
>>
>> On 1/24/2013 11:33 AM, Eric McCorkle wrote:
>>> The current version of the spec for parameter reflection, found here:
>>>
>>> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~abuckley/8misc.pdf
>>>
>>> states that if a parameter has no name, then the reflection API should
>>> synthesize a name of the form "argN", where N is the index of the
>>> parameter.  It also states that if a MethodParameters attribute has a
>>> name index of 0, then it indicates a parameter with no name.
>>>
>>> The question I have is, what if a MethodParameters attribute indicates a
>>> name of "" (meaning, the empty string)?  Does this count as a valid
>>> name, or should it be treated as a parameter with no name?
>>
>> For simplicity, I would be OK with saying that the name of a method
>> parameter is an "unqualified name" per JVMS 4.2.2. That bans . ; [ / and
>> allows everything else. For compilers targeting the ClassFile format,
>> this is a reasonable trade-off between freedom and convention.
>>
>> I would also say that an unqualified name (regardless of its role as a
>> field name, parameter name, etc) must consist of at least one ASCII
>> character in addition to not containing certain characters. That is, I'm
>> happy to declare "" out of bounds for MethodParameters to avoid
>> confusion with a 0 index (which I think remains a useful escape hatch
>> for compilers).
>>
>> How does all that sound?
>>
>
> That sounds fine to me.