Should setAccessible be part of Java or not? (was Re: It's not too late for access control)

[Alan Bateman]

On 14/07/2016 11:16, Andrew Haley wrote:

> :
> OK.  But "in the very long term" such a basic language change needs
> all stakeholders to be consulted.
I agree (although it's not really a language change in that it's API way 
to suppress access checks specified by the language).

> :
> Yes, indeed, and that is potentially a significant problem.  My
> comment stands: there is a serious possibility that his will make it
> impossible to use (non-exported) Jigsaw modules for some kinds of
> programming.  This is exactly the kind of decision that needs all
> stakeholders to be consulted.
>
> It ought to be possible to have some kind of conditional export which
> only allows such access by (e.g.)  suitably privileged frameworks or
> tools.  But I have no desire to get involved in such design issues: I
> am only going to say that this is an issue which requires wider
> consultation.
>
This is #ReflectiveAccessToNonExportedTypes on the JSR 376 issues list. 
The problem is reasonably well understood and there are several 
proposals and approaches being discussed and considered.

-Alan