Many interfaces in GeoTools and GeoServer use the Dispose pattern, often
with a dispose() method, but do not implement AutoCloseable, preventing
their use in a try-with-resources statement. Examples range from
ImageReader to DataStore/DataAccess. Some interfaces like FeatureReader
already implement Closeable and thus AutoCloseable, but many do not.
Java 7 try-with-resources improves code quality because it simplifies
code by automating common boilerplate:
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/exceptions/tryResourceClose.html
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/lang/AutoCloseable.html
Adding AutoCloseable to an interface is an API-breaking change because
third-party subclasses that do not implement a close() method will no
longer compile. Any change would be applied only to master and would
target GeoTools 20.0 and GeoServer 2.14.0.
- Should we add AutoCloseable to interfaces, and if so which ones? We
could make a list.
- Do we make the change one interface at a time or try to do them all at
once?
- Should we rename dispose() to close() in implementers and add a
deprecated dispose() that wraps close(), or just add a close() that
wraps dispose()?
- As we are breaking the API anyway, should we get rid of dispose()
entirely by renaming it to close() without adding a deprecated wrapper?
- I thought of updating only interfaces and overrides. A more ambitious
scope would find every deprecated dispose() and refactor to use
try-with-resources. The alternative is to refactor incrementally over
time. How do we wish to pay off our technical debt?
- Who is interested in participating in this work?
Kind regards,
--
Ben Caradoc-Davies <b...@transient.nz>
Director
Transient Software Limited <https://transient.nz/>
New Zealand
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