Thank David I couldn't agree more. It denotates and communicates which parameter/local variable _references_ are immutable and should not be reassigned/reused which is a common and hard to find problem (e.g. typo) if you reuse params/local variables. I spend many hours looking for this kind of errors in different codebases and have to say that I rather spend these hours writing productive code :).
It also stresses the query character of many functions (side effect free). If you combine this with real immutable parameters and variables you have a consistent immutability. With some VMs you help the garbage collector and hotspot when using final, but imho the current Sun JVMs don't need that anymore if you enable escape analysis. Having the compiler complaining this (or rather the IDE) is quite convenient. I also use final on foreach iterator values. I'd rather have this as the default in the language and explicitly mark non final stuff but thats to late by now :). Michael David Leangen schrieb: >> I must say that I have never understood the "final" on method >> arguments. It doesn't bring any value. If the method argument is a >> native type, I can change it as much as I want as it doesn't modify >> the caller's value. If the argument is a mutable object, "final" >> doesn't stop me from modifying the object, only the reference which in >> turn doesn't affect the caller. Similar for local variables. And IMHO, >> "final" adds a lot of clutter everywhere. I like using "final" where >> it makes a difference, not out of principle. -- Cheers, Niclas. > > The point is that unless you can _guarantee_ that parameters are immutable, > then a lot of damage and bad side effects can happen during a method call. > > The simplest way of adding an extra layer of protection is to simply add > "final" to the method param. That way you know for sure at compile time > (i.e. more brainless stuff to take a load off all the already existing > complexity in the system) that you're not causing any side effects. > > > YMMV, but I've found that once you get used to "final", you don't even > notice it anymore. In fact quite the opposite: you notice more when it's > _not_ there (which I guess is the whole point of having it in the first > place). > > > Cheers, > Dave > > > > _______________________________________________ > qi4j-dev mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.ops4j.org/mailman/listinfo/qi4j-dev -- Michael Hunger Independent Consultant Web: http://www.jexp.de Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Enthusiastic Evangelist for Better Software Development We support Software Engineering Radio (www.se-radio.net) _______________________________________________ qi4j-dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ops4j.org/mailman/listinfo/qi4j-dev
