[JSR308] Raw Types and AnnotatedTypeFactory

[Michael Ernst]

Niko-

> > Addressing this has not been a priority for us.  We think that proper
> > use of generics is important to type safety, so we wish to encourage
> > it.  We expect that people who are willing to run a pluggable
> > type-checker will be willing to first ensure type-safety with respect
> > to Java's built-in type system (including generics).  And, our
> > implementation (of both the Checker Framework and of the checkers
> > themselves) is made simpler by assuming that there are no raw types.
> 
> In general, I agree with you that most people using a pluggable type
> system will also be working with fully generified-code.  However, even
> the most gung-ho type system adopter may occasionally have to interface
> with legacy code that makes use of raw types.  Therefore, it'd be good if
> the framework handled them gracefully.  They are after all a part of the
> Java language, for better or worse.
> 
> In any case, after changing the framework not to insert dummy types for
> missing type arguments, I have (so far!) not had any problems... but I
> haven't done a lot of work with raw typed programs, just a little.

This seems pretty reasonable.  When you have a chance, can you send us your
diffs (by private mail, not on the main JSR 308 mailing list) so we can try
it out too?

                     Thanks,

                    -Mike