After talking with folks at the Jfokus VM Summit, it seems like there's a number of nice-to-have and a few need-to-have features we'd like to see get into java.lang.invoke. Vladimir suggested I start a thread on these features.
A few from me: * A loop handle :-) Given a body and a test, run the body until the test is false. I'm guessing there's a good reason we don't have this already. * try/finally as a core atom of MethodHandles API. Libraries like invokebinder provide a shortcut API To generating the large tree of handles needed for try/finally, but the JVM may not be able to optimize that tree as well as a purpose-built adapter. * Argument grouping operations in the middle of the argument list. JRuby has many signatures that vararg somewhere other than the end of the argument list, and the juggling required to do that logic in handles is complex: shift to-be-boxed args to end, box them, shift box back. Another point about these more complicated forms: they're ESPECIALLY slow early in execution, before LFs have been compiled to bytecode. * Implementation-specific inspection API. I know there are different ways to express a MH tree on different JVMs (e.g. J9) but it would still be a big help for me if there were a good way to get some debug-time structural information about a handle I'm using. Hidden API would be ok if it's not too hidden :-) That's off the top of my head. Others? - Charlie _______________________________________________ mlvm-dev mailing list mlvm-dev@openjdk.java.net http://mail.openjdk.java.net/mailman/listinfo/mlvm-dev
