Yield considered harmful

[Mark Thornton]

Alex Blewitt wrote:
> As has been noted elsewhere, the inconsistency between 'this' as a reference to the SAM instance and 'yield' as a way of return-from-lambda is not a good development. Given that 'this' is already defiend, why not use 'return' as well? Almost all Java developers will understand this immediately; and it doesn't prevent the kind of macro use that has been described about elsewhere in the future. 
>
> Furthermore, 'yield' already has an existant meaning in Java:
>
> http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17476_01/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/java/lang/Thread.html#yield()
>
> "Causes the currently executing thread object to temporarily pause and allow other threads to execute."
>
> Having a keyword mean something completely different from a well defined term in multi-threading (and one that's been there since Java 1.0 days) seems folly at best. 
>   
On the other hand Thread.yield() is so rarely used that very few Java 
programmers are likely to be bothered by the additional meaning. I 
wonder how many people have used it to any practical effect in the last 
five years.
That said, I'm also not keen on the proposed use of yield.

Mark Thornton