The questionable decision there wasn't making them final, but giving them a
broken hashCode implementation.
--
Skype: ricky_clarkson


On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 8:20 AM, Kevin Wright <[email protected]>wrote:

> I never really had a big problem with String being final, although the
> claims that it was for security reasons seem a bit weak given that strings
> are also immutable.
>
> On the other hand, making enums and the URL type final after giving them
> both such a hideously broken hashCode implementation... That definitely
> numbers amongst the top 10 questionable design decisions in Java.
>
>
> On 1 March 2012 11:14, Kirk Pepperdine <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>
>> On 2012-03-01, at 12:08 PM, Fabrizio Giudici wrote:
>>
>> > On Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:01:46 +0100, Kirk Pepperdine <
>> [email protected]> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> >> On the question of Strings, StringBuffer/Builder and copying char
>> arrays. Sorry to say that this is still a huge performance drain in many
>> applications. It's the only place where I miss c pointers ;-). Hotspot
>> rarely does the right thing when it comes to string and string
>> manipulation. It's javac that makes the biggest impact (string1 + string2
>> is converted to using StringBuilder and so on). So here are a few rules
>> when working with strings.
>> >>
>> >> Rule #1, don't copy them or force them to copy themselves.
>> >> Rule #2, use a flyweight instead of a copy
>> >> Rule #3, don't copy them or force them to copy themselves.
>> >> Rule #4, use System.arraycopy, it is the most efficient way to copy a
>> primitive array.
>> >
>> > Perhaps does this explain why e.g. Perl is still faster than Java in
>> some heavy text manipulation benchmarks? (not my direct experience, I'm not
>> using Perl since a lot of time, this assertion just came up a few weeks ago
>> in a JUG discussion out of a reputable commenter).
>>
>> I'm not sure how Perl treats strings but if it runs though it a char at a
>> time without copying... perfect.... it will beat the cr@p out of Java.
>> Not only a Java problem, I think Dick mentioned Smalltalk. Smalltalk was
>> also horrible with Strings. It's only saving grace was that String wasn't a
>> final class which meant you could extend it in some very useful ways that
>> mitigated the copy costs. Having String declared final by some developer in
>> Santa Clara wanting to be my mother is one of my top pet peeves... ;-)
>>
>> Regards,
>> Kirk
>>
>>  --
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