Generics and NetRexx

[Patric Bechtel]

Hello all,

as I've seen on java.sun.com, there's an update on the generics implementation
of the javac compiler available (v1.3), which will be the one (or at least
close to it) delivered on the forecoming 1.4.2 release of Java.
As Michaels JSR DECIMAL (don't remember the number) seems to be accepted,
there is a small light of hope in my heart for some little update of
the NetRexx language regarding generics.
Michael, can we hope on something like that?

 a=HashSet<Integer>()
 loop i over a
   say i
   end

instead of

 a=HashSet()
 it=a.iterator()
 loop while it.hasNext()
   i=Integer it.next()
   say i
   end

Or

 b=HashMap<String,Rexx>()
 loop i over b.keys()
   say i'->'b.get(i)
   end

instead of

 b=HashMap()
 it=b.keySet().iterator()
 loop while it.hasNext()
   i=String it.next()
   say i'->'Rexx b.get(i)
   end


Please take into account the complete absence of casting constructs... :-)
It would help keeping up the clean syntax of NetRexx also in the case
of working with the collection classes (whereas enabling NetRexx interaction
with the new collection classes would be a great start).
Wonderful, eh?

Patric



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[rene.vincent.jansen]

>there is a small light of hope in my heart for some little update of
 >the NetRexx language regarding generics.
 >Michael, can we hope on something like that?


I certainly do share this hope.

René Vincent Jansen
Group Organisation & Information Management/MIS
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[Patric Bechtel]

Hello Mike,

phew... holding my breath is not one of my strengths, I think... :-)

As I'm told by a Sun employee working on the 1.4.2 release, they do
not expect it before Jan '03, so there's a bit time...
There's much more about generics than just "no casts" and such, it's
a deep change in programmers, and such also in compiler builders,
thinking. So starting to think about it cannot hurt...

Hm, but the DECIMAL project seemed sort of final, didn't it? It will
make it into next JDK release (Tiger, Hopper?), or am I misinformed
or too optimistic? It will be a big step forward for (pure) Java,
though doing it NOW in NetRexx is a nice alternative. How much of
the specification is reality in NetRexx? Are the NetRexx decimal
routines an early version of the current specs?

Patric



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[Fernando Cassia]

Patric's message reminded me of something very important:

IMHO...

-Everyone using a Java2 vm from sun version 1.4.0.x (or even 1.3.x)
should really
uninstall it and get 1.4.1_01 from Sun. I'm using java on a daily basis
on my winblows system (to run apps like Phex (http://phex.kouk.de) and
PhotoMesa (http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/photomesa/), on my winblows and
linux systems, and I think 1.4.1_01 is the most stable, compared to all
previous releases.

According to Sun's docs, over 2,000 (yes, two thousand) bugs were fixed
from 1.4.0.x to 1.4.1_01.

Linux, Windows, and Solaris users can get it from here:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.1/download.html

OS/2 users, of course, (and that includes me too :-/) will have to wait
for whatever comes out of of announced 1.4 porting effort...
(http://www.goldencode.com/company/press/20020814.html)

Finally, if anyone needs to check the java version is currently being
used by your web browser, you can load the version display applet
currently at my homepage:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/fcassia/java-version-check.html

Just FYI...
Fernando
PS: this message could have been compressed into a single line: "Use
1.4.1, Java 1.4.0.x really sucked!" ;)

Patric Bechtel wrote:

>
> Hello all,
>
> as I've seen on java.sun.com, there's an update on the generics implementation
> of the javac compiler available (v1.3), which will be the one (or at least
> close to it) delivered on the forecoming 1.4.2 release of Java.
> As Michaels JSR DECIMAL (don't remember the number) seems to be accepted,
> there is a small light of hope in my heart for some little update of
> the NetRexx language regarding generics.
> Michael, can we hope on something like that?
>
>  a=HashSet<Integer>()
>  loop i over a
>    say i
>    end
>
> instead of
>
>  a=HashSet()
>  it=a.iterator()
>  loop while it.hasNext()
>    i=Integer it.next()
>    say i
>    end
>
> Or
>
>  b=HashMap<String,Rexx>()
>  loop i over b.keys()
>    say i'->'b.get(i)
>    end
>
> instead of
>
>  b=HashMap()
>  it=b.keySet().iterator()
>  loop while it.hasNext()
>    i=String it.next()
>    say i'->'Rexx b.get(i)
>    end
>
> Please take into account the complete absence of casting constructs... :-)
> It would help keeping up the clean syntax of NetRexx also in the case
> of working with the collection classes (whereas enabling NetRexx interaction
> with the new collection classes would be a great start).
> Wonderful, eh?
>
> Patric
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list ( ibm-netrexx ), please send a note to
> [hidden email]
> with the following message in the body of the note
> unsubscribe ibm-netrexx <e-mail address>