[3736] in java-interest
Re: Fundamental flaw in Java library distribution scheme
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Griswold)
Fri Nov 24 16:59:39 1995
Date: Fri, 24 Nov 95 11:28:25 PST
To: java-interest@java.Eng.Sun.COM
From: david@longview.com (David Griswold)
Cc: flar@bendenweyr.Eng.Sun.COM, wnj@sw.central.Sun.COM
Jim,
1) Yes, as I pointed out in my original post, the override form of the
problem is easy to fix, and it sounds like it will be fixed in the
next release.
2) for some reason, you are persistently misunderstanding my statement
of the second form of the problem. You seem to think I am confusing
overrides and overloads; nothing could be further from the truth.
If you read every posting/correspondence I have made on this issue
carefully, I very clearly refer to the second form of the problem
as having to do with overloading, NOT overriding. So there is
no disagreement there.
The essence of your response to the second problem seems to be
"this behavior is intentional, and is spelled out in the language
spec." Of course, Sun can define the language behavior anyway it
wants; if you want this behavior in the language, so be it.
Nonetheless, my major point is still true, *regardless* of what
the language spec says. Here is why: you are saying that the
language spec intentionally has built into it rules that make the
behavior of a .class file dependent on when it was compiled. This
means that the semantics of a Java program is explicitly dependent
on information that is NOT ENCODED IN THE SOURCE CODE.
In other words, you are saying that the source code for a Java program
is not sufficient describe the behavior of that program; you also have
to know when (and in what environment) each compilation unit was
last compiled. That is an *extremely* undesirable property. My final
point follows directly from the above: If a programmer wants to ensure
that the behavior of his program is dependent only on the current state
of his source code, he will have to recompile dependent compilation units,
using a makefile or other mechanism.
-Dave
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