A syntax option (function types versus arrays)

[Joshua Bloch]

Neal,

On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 3:42 PM, Neal Gafter <neal at gafter.com> wrote:

>  By comparison to the infix notation the other forms look clumsy.
>

This issue is controversial. There are those who find the "infix" (arrow)
notation particularly ugly in the context of Java.


>  It doesn't make sense to
> cripple the function type syntax to support something that is and
> always will be unsafe.
>

This language ("cripple  the function type syntax") seems far too strong.  I
think what you're saying is more like "I like the arrow notation better."

Safe or not, I think it's highly desirable that we be able to express the
type that represents an array of function types.  Otherwise function types
will be second-class citizens: you can (to the best of my knowledge) express
arrays of every other Java type. This is not the sort of invariant to give
up lightly.

        Josh