Nice to @Share?

[Joshua Bloch]

Neal,

On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 1:31 PM, Neal Gafter <neal at gafter.com> wrote:

> I agree with Josh on most of this.


Twice in a week!  Will wonders never cease?


>
> As for the name, "shared" doesn't mean that the variable is shared
> between threads.  It means that the variable may be shared between the
> method (or lambda) in which it is declared and any nested lambdas.
>

I understand, but I believe that programmers would be very confused by this,
because of the ambiguity in the possible meaning of shared.


> Re 'In practical terms, it means "this variable must *not* be shared
> (without additional synchronization)."', this doesn't really make much
> sense to me; all variables (whether marked @Shared or not) must not be
> shared between threads (without additional synchronization).
>

Not so. Shared *mutable* state must be synchronized.  If it's not shared *or
not mutable*, no synchronization is necessary.

    Josh