[type-annos-observers] Preview of Proposed Final Draft for JSR 308

[Alex Buckley]

The Public Review period ended on 4 December. No comments were received 
from the public. The Public Review EC ballot ended on 23 December.

I have integrated the JLS and JVMS changes given in the Public Review 
specification into the master JLS and JVMS drafts for Java SE 8. This 
necessitated minor edits to material from the Public Review and also to 
pre-existing material in the JLS and JVMS:

- Corrections to the grammar of ReferenceType, UnannType, 
VariableDeclaratorId, MethodDeclarator, and ArrayCreationExpression.
- Clarifications to JLS 4.11 "Where Types Are Used" and 6.5.1 "Syntactic 
Classification of a Name According to Context".
- Clarifications to JLS 6.1 "Declarations" with respect to non-generic 
contexts.
- Integration with a small language feature covered by JSR 337: 
Repeating annotations can appear in type contexts, not just declaration 
contexts.
- Integration with lambda expressions and method reference expressions 
from JSR 335.

In all, the following JLS and JVMS sections are affected by JSR 308:

- 4.2 / 4.3 / 4.4 / 4.5.1 / 4.11
- 6.1 / 6.5.1
- 7.4.1
- 8.1.1 / 8.1.2 / 8.3 / 8.3.1 / 8.4 / 8.4.1 / 8.4.3 / 8.4.5 / 8.4.6 / 
8.8.3 / 8.9.1
- 9.1.1 / 9.1.2 / 9.3 / 9.4 / 9.6 / 9.6.1 / 9.6.4.1 / 9.7.4
- 14.4 / 14.4.1 / 14.14.2 / 14.20 / 14.20.3
- 15.10.1 / 15.27.1
- 19
- JVMS 4.7 / 4.7.20 / 4.7.21

The master JLS and JVMS drafts are available as part of the preview of 
the Proposed Final Draft specification for Java SE 8 (JSR 337):

 
http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~mr/se/8/java-se-8-pfd-spec-01/java-se-8-annex-3.html

which was announced to the JSR 337 EG at:

 
http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/java-se-8-spec-experts/2013-December/000045.html

Assuming the EC ballet for JSR 308 goes well, I plan to submit the 
Proposed Final Draft specification of JSR 308 in January. It will simply 
point to sections of the JLS and JVMS in the Proposed Final Draft 
specification of JSR 337 that will be submitted at the same time.

I will be on vacation through the end of 2013, so I will respond in 
early January to any comments on the previewed JSR 308 material.

Alex