Hi,

Wouldn't the close() implementation be nil in most cases if there was no resource. That kind of method runs very quickly and I would expect the compiler to inline nothing.

It would be quicker to just call close() than to engage reflection to determine if it really did and then decide to call it. Or am I missing some point about
generating code or in some cases not needing/wanting to close it?

Roger



On 7/11/2013 5:08 PM, Peter Levart wrote:
Hi Paul,

I think the MayHoldCloseableResource extends AutoClosable is correct and AutoClosable extends MayHoldCloseableResource would be wrong.

And exactly because of "Liskov":

MayHoldCloseableResource contract says: "If you know it holds a resource, call close(), otherwise you need not call close(), but it's not wrong to call it anyway - you know whether it holds resource by looking at @HoldsResource annotation"

AutoClosable contract says: "It holds a resource, you should call close()"


Now imagine code that was written for the AutoClosable contract. Would it work if you pass it an instance of MayHoldCloseableResource? Allways.

Now imagine generic code that was written for MayHoldCloseableResource contract and which uses the lookup of @HoldsResource at runtime to decide whether to call close() or not. Would it work if you pass it an instance of AutoClosable? Never (since AutoClosable says nothing about any annotation).

So I argue that MayHoldCloseableResource should be a subtype of AutoClosable and not the other way around.

(I have not said anything about whether the MayHoldCloseableResource is actually needed or not.)


Regards, Peter


On 07/11/2013 10:22 PM, Paul Benedict wrote:
Paul S.'s said the "negative" of using AutoCloseable is "it is no longer
clear whether a stream should be closed or not" (6/20). That's true because the semantics of AutoCloseable indicates you have a resource that requires
closing.

However, the choice to make MayHoldCloseableResource a sub-interface of
AutoClosable should be resisted. It's an inverted design. The Liskov
*substitution
principle *says that sub-interfaces can't loosen the contracts of their
superinterface. If anything, AutoCloseable should be subclass of this new interface, which MIGHT hold a resource that requires closing. The current
choice is just plainly backwards.

For the above reason stated, and for the fact the interface adds no new
functionality, it's superfluous. If the interface relationship can't be
inverted, then chuck it -- it does nothing anyway. At the least, keep the
annotation.

Paul


On Thu, Jul 11, 2013 at 3:01 PM, Henry Jen <henry....@oracle.com> wrote:

On 07/11/2013 01:13 AM, Florian Weimer wrote:
On 07/10/2013 11:30 PM, Henry Jen wrote:

A new interface, java.util.MayHoldCloseableResource, indicates an
implementation may or may not hold a resource need to be closed.
Why doesn't close() throw Exception?
Because there is really much a developer can do on that situation. The
API simply make it not throw a *checked* exception.

See EG discussion on this topic,


http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/lambda-libs-spec-experts/2013-June/002081.html

Annotation {@link HoldsResource} may be used to guide users/static
analysis tools that a MHCR instance that definitely hold a Closeable
resource.
All this looks a bit odd to me.  I suppose the idea is that you don't
want to give up the last reference to a closeable resource without
calling close()—and not leak references which out-live the call to
close(). This is definitely not a property of the type of the resource, so I don't see why the MayHoldCloseableResource interface is needed (or can confer relevant information). The HoldsResource annotation could be useful, but based on the current documentation, it's not clear if it is
actually intended to express the data flow property.

I would suggest you look at EG discussion on this topic. The MHCR is
different from AutoCloseable on the chances of holding critical resources.

Perhaps that suggests the javadoc is not clear enough, I would like to
know what is important and missing.

Cheers,
Henry





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