Implementing recursive lambda with MethodHandle

[Neal Gafter]

On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 11:19 AM, Joshua Bloch <jjb at google.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 11:06 AM, John Nilsson <john at milsson.nu> wrote:
>> Has it been decided that lambdas will be instances of Object? To me it
>> seems
>> that a lambda is fundamentally different from an object
>
>
> I respectfully disagree.  Java already has a bipartite type system (with
> object rerference types and primitive types).  The *last* thing we should do
> is to make it tripartite.  People already complain about the
> primitive/object distinction.  We must avoid adding significant new
> complexity to an already complex language. Java's type system is among the
> most delicate and complex parts of the language. Anything we add has to
> interoperate seamlessly and predictably with what's already there/

I think John was saying that lambdas are fundamentally different from
object creation expressions (e.g. anonymous inner classes), which I
agree with.  I also agree with you that function types must be
reference types.