RFR: JDK-8267916: Make as_CompilerThread consistent with other as_*_thread methods [v2]

[David Holmes]

On Wed, 2 Jun 2021 14:17:58 GMT, Albert Mingkun Yang <ayang at openjdk.org> wrote:

>> Simple refactoring around `as_CompilerThread`. A new file, `compilerThread.inline.hpp`, is created to get around the circular dependency.
>
> Albert Mingkun Yang has updated the pull request incrementally with one additional commit since the last revision:
> 
>   cast

The change to CompilerThread::cast doesn't seem necessary to address any circular header dependencies - what am I missing?

I personally prefer the as_X() style for thread casts (though X is spelt incorrectly in most places), but `cast` is a more traditional name and used for other type hierarchies in the VM. So we can change this for other thread types in a separate RFE.

As Ioi notes, this RFE needs a new synopsis: "Adopt cast notation for CompilerThread conversions" or something like that.

Thanks,
David

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Marked as reviewed by dholmes (Reviewer).

PR: https://git.openjdk.java.net/jdk/pull/4240