Better encapsulation for AnnotatedType

[Jonathan Gibbons]

On 09/15/2013 12:53 AM, Werner Dietl wrote:
> Regarding SymbolMetadata, I find it a bit strange that the methods that
> access SymbolMetadata in Symbol are still called "xxxAnnotations", e.g.
> com.sun.tools.javac.code.Symbol.getAnnotations()
> Should these also be renamed?

Yes, this method should be renamed, preferably sooner rather than later.

It looks like initedAnnos should be renamed to initedMetadata as well. 
(I don't think we need the longer form initedSymbolMetadata, given the 
context.

And yes,
     protected SymbolMetadata annotations;
should be renamed to
     protected SymbolMetadata metadata;

This renaming should be done as a patch to tl/langtools.

To be clear on where we are trying to go with the naming,  the intent is 
to use "metadata" for all metadata; "annotations" are a particular kind 
of metadata.    Although annotations are currently the only kind of 
metadata on a symbol, the distinction is more obvious on Type, where 
constant values are another kind of metadata on Type.  Thus TypeMetadata 
will contain constant values and type annotations.

-- Jon