RFR (L) JDK-8230199: consolidate signature parsing code in HotSpot sources

[John Rose]

On Feb 4, 2020, at 2:46 PM, David Holmes <david.holmes at oracle.com> wrote:
> 
> Klass* SignatureStream::as_klass(Handle class_loader, Handle protection_domain,
>                                 FailureMode failure_mode, TRAPS) {
>  if (!is_reference())  return NULL;
>  Symbol* name = as_symbol();
>  if (name == NULL) {
>    assert(failure_mode == CachedOrNull, "signature incorrect failure mode");
>    return NULL;
>  }

That looks like partially evolved code.  The failure_mode
argument allows the user to ask for NULL if the symbol
isn’t resolved, and if the symbol in fact isn’t in the string
table it cannot be resolved.  Perhaps an earlier version of
that code said something like “name = as_symbol_or_null()”?

— John