Updated JEP: nestmates

[David Holmes]

Correction ...

On 18/04/2017 3:35 PM, David Holmes wrote:
> Just to reiterate comments I made in other responses ...
>
> On 15/04/2017 6:34 AM, John Rose wrote:
>> On Apr 13, 2017, at 3:12 PM, Brian Goetz <brian.goetz at oracle.com
>> <mailto:brian.goetz at oracle.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> We can't rely on javac (or other compilers) to always generate "nest
>>> of one" attributes, so the VM would have to, on seeing a class with no
>>> nest attributes, set "nestTop = me".  But I think that would be the
>>> only change in the implementation?  And then nestTop(C) becomes a
>>> total function, which simplifies things.
>>
>> Confirmed.
>>
>> Regarding javac: It would be polite if javac were to agree that if
>> the output classfile has an InnerClasses attribute, and the current
>> class either records an outer-class or the current class *is* an
>> outer-class, then the classfile will also have one of the nestmate
>> attributes.
>
> Currently nestmate attribute generation is completely independent of
> innerclass atrributes and only enabled for "-release 10" or later.
>
>> But the system has to be robust if javac drops the ball once in a while.
>
> Not sure what that means. The spec will define legal use of the new
> attributes and the VM will reject any non-conformant use.
>
>> And it certainly has to read down-rev class files correctly.
>
> Yes, as I said, pre 54 classfiles are expected to continue to use
> innerclass attributes (and only those - though IIUC we can't reject
> unexpected attributes, only ignore them).
>
>> On Apr 13, 2017, at 2:57 PM, David Holmes <david.holmes at oracle.com
>> <mailto:david.holmes at oracle.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Do you want javac to generate a self-referential MemberOfNest
>>> attribute? If you want this then the definitions need a rewrite. This
>>> is not where we are today.
>>
>> FTR, the form of a degenerate nest is not a self-referential MON
>> attribute, but an empty NMs attribute.  That's allowed by the spec.
>
> Are you saying that is what you want javac to generate? The current
> proposed definition of the NM attribute prohibits it:
>
> https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8177020
>
> Add: 4.7.26 The `NestMembers` Attribute
>
> The `NestMembers` attribute is a variable-length attribute in the
> attributes table of a `ClassFile` structure (§4.1).
>
> If the constant pool of a class or interface `C` contains at least one
> `CONSTANT_Class_info` entry (§4.4.1) which represents a class or
> interface that is not a member of a package, then there must be exactly
> one `NestMembers` attribute in the attributes table of the `ClassFile`
> structure for `C`. If `C` itself is not a member of a package, then
> there must not be a `NestMembers` attribute in the attributes table of
> the `ClassFile` structure for `C`.
> ---

Sorry - the above doesn't actually prohibit putting a NM attribute with 
an empty array.

David

> Cheers,
> David
>
>> — John