Empty value types

[Paul Govereau]

I don't think there is anything wrong with it. I can even think of a use 
case: phantom types.

  final __ByValue class ReadWrite {}
  final __ByValue class ReadOnly {}
  final __ByValue class File<T> { ... }

  File<ReadWrite> openForWrite(String file) { ... }
  File<ReadOnly>  openForRead(String file) { ... }

  void write(File<ReadWrite> file, ...) { ... }

However, I think we need to add checks to detect construction of empty 
value types. I am not sure what to do about methods defined inside of an 
empty type? Maybe only static methods are OK?

Paul

On 08/01/2014 12:50 PM, Brian Goetz wrote:
> While an empty value is silly, is there something actually wrong with it?
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Aug 1, 2014, at 9:47 AM, Paul Govereau <paul.govereau at oracle.com> wrote:
>>
>> What are we going to do with empty value types?
>>
>> The most sensible thing seems to allow them to be declared but not constructed. e.g.
>>
>>   final __ByValue class Void {}   // <- ok
>>
>>   Void v = __Make Void();   // <- error cannot construct empty type.
>>
>> Paul