valhalla-dev Digest, Vol 17, Issue 3

[Thomas W]

Hi Vitaly,

> I just wanted to quickly ask if there's still a plan to allow
specialization of storage
> based on concrete type - think ArrayList<boolean> being a bit vector
> internally, as an example.  Any current thoughts/plans?

The clear conclusion I came to, was that specialization of storage belonged
in a separate class. And that it would be a design error to try and misuse
genericization/ value-type handling for that different purpose.

If you want a BooleanBitList, create a separate class for it.

Fundamental differences in how storage is addressed == fundamental
structural change == different class.

Clear & simple design principle, no?  Otherwise we end up with a C-style
preprocessor, the ability to conditionally code anything, and the notion of
'class' becomes meaningless.

Regards,
Thomas