JDK support for VM to read classes from modules in a module library

David Holmes david.holmes at oracle.com
Thu May 10 02:36:05 PDT 2012


On 10/05/2012 6:49 PM, Paul Sandoz wrote:
> On May 9, 2012, at 6:52 PM, Mandy Chung wrote:
>>> [*] i must admit to never quite understanding what this flag means.
>>> Java doc states that for initialize parameter "whether the class must be initialized". Is that a constraint or an action? I presume the later.
>>
>> Yes, the later - that indicates whether the class static initializer will be invoked or not.
>>
>
> Could we update the JavaDoc :-)
>
> @param initialize if true the class will be initialized (specifically the class static initializer will be invoked) [refer to errors on initialization], otherwise the class is not initialized [refer to when it will be initialized].

A better update in my opinion would be to simply say:

@param initialize if true the class will be initialized - see JLS 12.4

Seriously, anyone using API's for explicit class loading should have 
read about classloading and initialization - we're doing them a favour 
by pointing them to the JLS if they don't understand what class 
initialization is.

David
-----


> Thanks,
> Paul.



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