Is it still necessary for the core Java classes such as java.lang.Integer to be declared final? I understand that may have been necessary in the early days for performance reasons, but modern JVMs no longer provide much of a performance benefit for final classes. For certain applications it would really be helpful to be able to subclass some of those core classes.
For example, one application I'm working on deals with integer values that must be between 0 and 9999 inclusive. I would like to be able to create a custom Integer subclass which enforces that limit in the constructor, but currently that isn't possible. While I could create a new class that acts as a wrapper around Integer, the syntax would be much more awkward and that would also make it much more difficult to interface with other third-party classes. Nick Radov | Research and Development Manager | Axolotl Corp www.axolotl.com, d: 408.920.0800 x116, f: 408.920.0880 160 West Santa Clara St., Suite 1000, San Jose, CA, 95113 THE MARKET LEADER IN HEALTH INFORMATION EXCHANGE ? PROVIDING PATIENT INFORMATION WHEN AND WHERE IT IS NEEDED. The information contained in this e-mail transmission may contain confidential information. It is intended for the use of the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this information is strictly prohibited. If you receive this message in error, please inform the sender immediately and remove any record of this message.
