SAM types and functions

[Alex Blewitt]

 > Many existing Java libraries define interfaces which declare just  
one method
 > or abstract classes which declare just one abstract method (so- 
called “SAM” types).
 > A function of appropriate type is converted to an anonymous  
instance ...

I'm not sure this is needed in the general case; where it could be  
used is in (say) Comparators. However, having a Collections static  
method (say, Comparable c = Collections.comparable(#int(Object a,  
Object b)) would be sufficient to convert a lambda into a Comparable.

I think the addition of the SAM conversion adds unnecessary complexity  
and shouldn't necessarily be implemented if it causes the detriment of  
the addition of lambdas to the language; after all, many of the  
problems of existing proposals have been due to increased complexity.

That's not to say I don't see the benefit of doing this; but what  
happens if additional abstract methods are added to a class? That  
sounds like something to generate a lot of headaches in the edge cases.

Alex