function types syntax

[Lawrence Kesteloot]

On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 4:50 PM, Rémi Forax <forax at univ-mlv.fr> wrote:
>> The compiler only has to be implemented once, ...
>
> Just remember that Java is a spec, and a spec is usually
> not implemented once.
> Javac will have to implement it, ecj too. All dialects of
> Java like by example Groovy, beanshell will have to implement it too.
> ANTLR will provide a grammar, SableCC also, etc.

And the IDEs, editors with syntax highlighting (vim, emacs, wikis,
etc.), GWT, ...

I'm not concerned about the amount of work involved. As Neal says,
that's outweighed by the work saved by programmers. But I am concerned
about each of those implementations getting it right. How are we to
test that GWT's closure semantics match those of the JDK? The more
complex a feature, that harder it is to get right. See the number of
obscure inconsistencies between Eclipse and JDK over the years, for
example.

Lawrence