JEP 186: Collection Literals

[Brian Goetz]

And, we have now reached our quota of syntax discussion on this topic. 
No more, please!  Such discussions get in the way of the important 
questions like:

  - what does this feature *mean*
  - what should the limits of this feature be
  - how does this map to bytecode

> Problem is that you need to differentiate list and set (and map possibly).

This need not be done syntactically.  We now have precedent and 
machinery for using /target typing/ here.  Let's assume the syntactic 
problems will be solved when we figure out what this feature ought to be.

For example, the two lambdas below are syntactically identical, but the 
type system knows what they need to be converted to:

   Function<String, Boolean> f = s -> s != null;
   Predicate<String> g = s -> s != null;

The same is true for distinguishing linear collections like arrays, 
lists, and sets.

The real question is "how far do we go."  The original Coin proposal 
stopped at sets, lists, and maps (and had a different syntax for each.) 
  But this seems kind of lame; why can't something that is List-like but 
not a java.util.List participate?


On 1/14/2014 11:19 AM, Paul Benedict wrote:
> I think you could likely achieve all those with curly braces. You'll have
> the help of type inference during assignment (list vs set) plus you can
> nest values whenever you need tuples (maps).
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 14, 2014 at 10:16 AM, Artur Biesiadowski <abies at adres.pl> wrote:
>
>> Problem is that you need to differentiate list and set (and map possibly).
>>
>> Few examples from existing languages
>>
>> Groovy:
>>
>> List  [1,2,3]
>> Set   [1,2,3] as Set
>> Map   ["a":1, "b":2]
>>
>> Xtend
>>
>> List  #[1,2,3]
>> Set   #{1,2,3}
>> Map   #{"a"->1, "b"->2}
>>
>> Scala
>>
>> List  Array(1,2,3)
>> Set   Set(1,2,3)
>> Map   Map("a"->1, "b"->2)
>>
>> C#
>>
>> List  new List<int> {1,2,3}
>> Set new HashSet<int> {1,2,3}
>> Map   new Dictionary<string,int>  { {"a":1},{"b":2}  }
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>> Artur Biesiadowski
>>
>> On 14/01/2014 16:30, Paul Benedict wrote:
>>> I would like to see Java have one way of doing initialization with a
>> series
>>> of values. C11/C++11 decided that curly braces was the way to go. So I
>>> would agree with Moshe we should favor curly braces over any new syntax.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jan 14, 2014 at 8:34 AM, Millies, Sebastian <
>>> Sebastian.Millies at softwareag.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I would certainly expect it to be an immutable list, and I believe the
>>>> proposal of having collection literals makes most sense in the context
>> of
>>>> persistent collections. This would be in keeping with evolving Java
>> towards
>>>> a more functional and parallel-friendly programming style, which entails
>>>> embracing immutability. In contrast, what's to be gained from a shorter
>>>> version of Arrays.asList() ?  -- Sebastian
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: lambda-dev-bounces at openjdk.java.net [mailto:
>>>> lambda-dev-bounces at openjdk.java.net] On Behalf Of Moshe Sayag
>>>> Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2014 2:52 PM
>>>> To: lambda-dev at openjdk.java.net
>>>> Subject: Re: JEP 186: Collection Literals
>>>>
>>>> 1. What is the exact meaning of:
>>>>
>>>> List<Integer> list = #[ 1, 2, 3 ];
>>>>
>>>> Will 'list' be an ArrayList, a LinkedList or an immutable list?
>>>>
>>>> 2. Java already has the curly brackets {...} to construct an array.
>>>>
>>>> int[] array = { 1, 2, 3 };
>>>>
>>>> How will the new literal go with it?
>>>> Will we have:
>>>>
>>>> int[] array = #[ 1, 2, 3 ];
>>>>
>>>> What about
>>>>
>>>> List<Integer> list = { 1, 2, 3 };
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Moshe
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Jan 14, 2014 at 2:17 AM, <mark.reinhold at oracle.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Posted: http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/186
>>>>>
>>>>> - Mark
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Software AG – Sitz/Registered office: Uhlandstraße 12, 64297 Darmstadt,
>>>> Germany – Registergericht/Commercial register: Darmstadt HRB 1562 -
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>> of
>>>> the Supervisory Board: Dr. Andreas Bereczky - http://www.softwareag.com
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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