[JSR308] Block Annotations Suggestion

[Igor Peshansky]

"Eduardo Born" <nosachamos at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi All!
> My name is Eduardo Born, I'm new to the list, and I'm VERY interested 
> on discussing the future of Java Annotations.
> 
> I have been working very close and deep with Java reflection and 
> annotations, and there are some things I miss in the current Java 
> Annotations implementation that are being currently proposed, and some
> that are not, so I joined the list to make suggestion and help on the 
> current proposal discussions whenever possible. 
> 
> My first suggestion is to have a block annotation syntax, so a single 
> annotation can be applied to a group of elements. For example, let's 
> suppose we have a marker annotation that informs that a given field is
> to be remotely accessible through a given framework, for example 
> @RemotelyAccessible. 
> 
> Currently, to make several fields marked as remotely accessible, we 
> would have to do the following:
> ...
> @RemotelyAcessible
> private String field1;
> 
> @RemotelyAcessible 
> private String field2;
> 
> @RemotelyAcessible
> private String field3;
> ...
> 
> and so on.
> 
> Why not have a syntax like the following:
> 
> @RemotelyAccessible { 
>      private String field1;
>      private String field2;
>      private String field3;
> }
> 
> So the given annotation is replicated to all declarations/elements 
> inside the block.
> 
> As a senior Java developer, I frequently write my own annotations, and
> that syntax would make my life easier. I hope that helps more folks too. 

> 
> What do you think?
> 
> Cheers!
> Eduardo Born

Hi, Eduardo,

There is a potential problem with your proposal.  Will the block be part 
of the annotation, or will it be a regular compound statement in Java?
If the latter, the Java compiler will treat your block as a non-static 
initializer that declares some variables (similarly, if inside the method, 
the block will define its own scope, so the variables will not be visible 
outside).
If the former, this is a digression from the current Java annotation 
syntax, and probably belongs on the jsr308-statements list, which deals 
with annotations on statements.
In either case, how deep does your proposed annotation apply?  Suppose 
there is a block nested within the braces...  Will the annotation apply to 
the statements inside that block?

I've Cc'd this to the jsr308-statements list.  Perhaps it would be best if 
this discussion were continued there.
        Igor
-- 
Igor Peshansky  (note the spelling change!)
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
XJ: No More Pain for XML's Gain (http://www.research.ibm.com/xj/)
X10: Parallel Productivity and Performance (http://x10.sf.net/)

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