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<!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml' xmlns:b='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/b' xmlns:data='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/data' xmlns:expr='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/expr'> <head> <link href='https://www.blogger.com/static/v1/widgets/55013136-widget_css_bundle.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/> <meta content='text/html; charset=UTF-8' http-equiv='Content-Type'/> <meta content='blogger' name='generator'/> <link href='https://gafter.blogspot.com/favicon.ico' rel='icon' type='image/x-icon'/> <link href='http://gafter.blogspot.com/2010/02/' rel='canonical'/> <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Neal Gafter's blog - Atom" href="https://gafter.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Neal Gafter's blog - RSS" href="https://gafter.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss" /> <link rel="service.post" type="application/atom+xml" title="Neal Gafter's blog - Atom" href="https://www.blogger.com/feeds/7803021/posts/default" />  <meta content='http://gafter.blogspot.com/2010/02/' property='og:url'/> <meta content='Neal Gafter's blog' property='og:title'/> <meta content='Thoughts about Programming Languages, Science and Philosophy.' property='og:description'/> <title>Neal Gafter's blog: February 2010</title> <style id='page-skin-1' type='text/css'></style> <link href='https://www.blogger.com/dyn-css/authorization.css?targetBlogID=7803021&zx=320dc9d6-3705-4c62-b5c8-53b2c61cc0a1' media='none' onload='if(media!='all')media='all'' rel='stylesheet'/><noscript><link href='https://www.blogger.com/dyn-css/authorization.css?targetBlogID=7803021&zx=320dc9d6-3705-4c62-b5c8-53b2c61cc0a1' rel='stylesheet'/></noscript> <meta name='google-adsense-platform-account' content='ca-host-pub-1556223355139109'/> <meta name='google-adsense-platform-domain' content='blogspot.com'/> </head> <body> <div class='navbar section' id='navbar'><div class='widget Navbar' data-version='1' id='Navbar1'><script type="text/javascript"> function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) { if(window.addEventListener) { window.addEventListener('load', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false); } else { window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }); } } </script> <div id="navbar-iframe-container"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> gapi.load("gapi.iframes:gapi.iframes.style.bubble", function() { if (gapi.iframes && gapi.iframes.getContext) { gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild({ url: 'https://www.blogger.com/navbar.g?targetBlogID\x3d7803021\x26blogName\x3dNeal+Gafter\x27s+blog\x26publishMode\x3dPUBLISH_MODE_BLOGSPOT\x26navbarType\x3dBLUE\x26layoutType\x3dLAYOUTS\x26searchRoot\x3dhttps://gafter.blogspot.com/search\x26blogLocale\x3den\x26v\x3d2\x26homepageUrl\x3dhttps://gafter.blogspot.com/\x26vt\x3d9028559674743070826', where: document.getElementById("navbar-iframe-container"), id: "navbar-iframe", messageHandlersFilter: gapi.iframes.CROSS_ORIGIN_IFRAMES_FILTER, messageHandlers: { 'blogger-ping': function() {} } }); } }); </script><script type="text/javascript"> (function() { var script = document.createElement('script'); script.type = 'text/javascript'; script.src = '//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/google_top_exp.js'; var head = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0]; if (head) { head.appendChild(script); }})(); </script> </div></div> <div id='outer-wrapper'><div id='wrap2'>  <span id='skiplinks' style='display:none;'> <a href='#main'>skip to main </a> | <a href='#sidebar'>skip to sidebar</a> </span> <div id='header-wrapper'> <div class='header section' id='header'><div class='widget Header' data-version='1' id='Header1'> <div id='header-inner'> <div class='titlewrapper'> <h1 class='title'> <a href='https://gafter.blogspot.com/'> Neal Gafter's blog </a> </h1> </div> <div class='descriptionwrapper'> <p class='description'><span>Thoughts about Programming Languages, Science and Philosophy.</span></p> </div> </div> </div></div> </div> <div id='content-wrapper'> <div id='main-wrapper'> <div class='main section' id='main'><div class='widget Blog' data-version='1' id='Blog1'> <div class='blog-posts hfeed'> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Saturday, February 13, 2010</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post'> <a name='2983558471285368877'></a> <h3 class='post-title'> <a href='https://gafter.blogspot.com/2010/02/syntax-option-for-project-lambda.html'>A Syntax Option for Project Lambda (Closures for Java)</a> </h3> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> <div class='post-body'> <p><p> It was noted recently on the <a href="http://mail.openjdk.java.net/mailman/listinfo/lambda-dev">Project Lambda mailing list</a> that allowing arrays of function type would undermine the type system. The reason for this is a combination of Java's covariant arrays, the natural subtypes among function types (they are covariant on return type and contravariant on argument types), exception checking, and the erasure implementation of generics. We certainly can't remove covariant arrays or checked exceptions, and removing the subtype relationship among function types really reduces their utility. Unfortunately, it is almost certainly too late to reify generics too. Although you can't have an array of function type, there is no problem having, for example, an <tt><b>ArrayList</b></tt> of a function type. So while we might prefer not to have this restriction, it won't be much of a problem in practice. <p> There are many ways in which arrays of function type would undermine the type system, but to give you some flavor of the problem, the following is a method written assuming that arrays of function type are allowed. This method must fail in some way - either fail to compile, or throw a <tt><b>ClassCastException</b></tt>, or an <tt><b>ArrayStoreException</b></tt>, or something. In all of the implementations being considered, this method would throw <tt><b>IOException</b></tt>, even though that isn't declared in the throws clause of the method. We have undermined Java's exception checking without even a cast! <blockquote> <pre><b>public void main(String[] args) { #void()[] arrayOfFunction = new #void()[1]; Object[] objectArray = arrayOfFunction; objectArray[0] = #(){ throw new IOException(); }; arrayOfFunction[0].(); // invoke the function out of the array } </b></pre> </blockquote> <p> The realization that supporting arrays of function type would introduce a loophole in the type system makes it possible to consider some very nice syntax options that were previously eliminated because there was no syntactic way to write an array of function type. But if we disallow arrays of function type, those options can be considered. <p> My favorite of the alternatives is based on this grammar <blockquote> <dl> <dt><em>FunctionType</em>:</dt> <dd><tt><b>(</b></tt> <em>TypeList</em><sub>opt</sub> <em>Throws</em><sub>opt</sub> <tt><b>)</b></tt> <tt><b>-></b></tt> <em>ResultType</em></dd> <dt><em>Expression</em>:</dt> <dd><em>LambdaExpression</em></dd> <dt><em>LambdaExpression</em>:</dt> <dd><tt><b>(</b></tt> <em>FormalParameterList</em><sub>opt</sub> <tt><b>)</b></tt> <tt><b>-></b></tt> <em>Expression</em></dd> </dl> </blockquote> <p> A function type is written with the argument types between parentheses, then a right arrow (dash greater-than), and then the result type. <p> The most important distinction between this proposal and the existing draft specification is that this proposal places the result type after the argument types, instead of before. The benefits of its simplicity compared to the current specification are most obvious when you combine function types and lambdas with other features. <p> Here is a simple example to show how the two proposals look. The example is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currying">currying</a>. The following method takes as a parameter a function of two arguments, and returns a function of one argument that returns a function of one argument. Applying the resulting function to one value, and then the result of that to another value, should have the same effect as applying the original function to both values. To make it interesting, we make the argument and result types generic, and we allow the function to throw an exception. <p> Using the <a href="http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/lambda-dev/attachments/20100212/af8d2cc5/attachment-0001.txt">currently proposed syntax for Project Lambda</a>, the code would look something like this: <pre><b>static <T,U,V,X extends Throwable> ##V(U)(throws X)(T) curry(#V(T,U)(throws X) function) { return #(T t)(#(U u)(function.(t,u))); } </b></pre> <p> On the other hand, with the proposal described above it looks something like this: <pre><b>static <T,U,V,X extends Throwable> (T)->(U throws X)->V curry((T,U throws X)->V function) { return (T t)->(U u)->function.(t,u); } </b></pre> <p> I've intentionally selected an example that uses the new features heavily, so either may take a few moments of studying to understand. But I claim the latter is much easier to follow than the former, even once you've become familiar with the syntax. <p> You can easily write a function that yields an array as its result <pre><b>()->int[] arrayLambda = ()->new int[]{1, 2, 3}; </b></pre> <p> With this proposed syntax there is no way to write an array of functions. But that is exactly what we concluded could not be made to work within the type system anyway.</p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'><span class='post-comment-link'> <a class='comment-link' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/7803021/2983558471285368877' onclick=''>20 comments</a> </span> <span class='post-icons'> </span> <span class='post-backlinks post-comment-link'> </span> </p> <p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'></p> <p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'></p> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> </div> <div class='blog-pager' id='blog-pager'> <span id='blog-pager-newer-link'> <a class='blog-pager-newer-link' href='https://gafter.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2015-12-15T17:42:00-08:00&max-results=2&reverse-paginate=true' id='Blog1_blog-pager-newer-link' title='Newer Posts'>Newer Posts</a> </span> <span id='blog-pager-older-link'> <a class='blog-pager-older-link' 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href='https://gafter.blogspot.com/2006/10/'> October </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(3)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='https://gafter.blogspot.com/2006/09/'> September </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(5)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='https://gafter.blogspot.com/2006/08/'> August </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(4)</span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='https://gafter.blogspot.com/2005/'> 2005 </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(2)</span> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='https://gafter.blogspot.com/2005/02/'> February </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(2)</span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='https://gafter.blogspot.com/2004/'> 2004 </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(1)</span> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='https://gafter.blogspot.com/2004/09/'> September </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(1)</span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class='clear'></div> </div> </div><div class='widget Profile' data-version='1' id='Profile1'> <h2>About Me</h2> <div class='widget-content'> <dl class='profile-datablock'> <dt class='profile-data'> <a class='profile-name-link g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/08579466817032124881' rel='author' style='background-image: url(//www.blogger.com/img/logo-16.png);'> Neal Gafter </a> </dt> <dd class='profile-textblock'>Neal Gafter is a Computer Programming Language Designer and Implementer, Amateur Scientist and Philosopher. He works on the Rel compiler at Relational.AI. He previously worked for Microsoft on C#, for Google on Calendar, and for Sun Microsystems on Java. Neal was granted an OpenJDK Community Innovators' Challenge award for his design and implementation of lambda expressions for Java. He is coauthor of <em>Java Puzzlers: Traps, Pitfalls, and Corner Cases</em> (Addison Wesley, 2005). He was a member of the C++ Standards Committee and led the development of C and C++ compilers at Sun Microsystems, Microtec Research, and Texas Instruments. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Rochester.</dd> </dl> <a class='profile-link' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/08579466817032124881' rel='author'>View my complete profile</a> <div class='clear'></div> </div> </div></div> </div>  <div class='clear'> </div> </div>  <div id='footer-wrapper'> <div class='footer no-items section' id='footer'></div> </div> </div></div>  <script src="//www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type='text/javascript'> _uacct = "UA-605497-1"; urchinTracker(); </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.blogger.com/static/v1/widgets/984859869-widgets.js"></script> <script type='text/javascript'> window['__wavt'] = 'AOuZoY4L2fAKccTOAJwrr0LwziJchTcwQQ:1732815026762';_WidgetManager._Init('//www.blogger.com/rearrange?blogID\x3d7803021','//gafter.blogspot.com/2010/02/','7803021'); _WidgetManager._SetDataContext([{'name': 'blog', 'data': {'blogId': '7803021', 'title': 'Neal Gafter\x27s blog', 'url': 'https://gafter.blogspot.com/2010/02/', 'canonicalUrl': 'http://gafter.blogspot.com/2010/02/', 'homepageUrl': 'https://gafter.blogspot.com/', 'searchUrl': 'https://gafter.blogspot.com/search', 'canonicalHomepageUrl': 'http://gafter.blogspot.com/', 'blogspotFaviconUrl': 'https://gafter.blogspot.com/favicon.ico', 'bloggerUrl': 'https://www.blogger.com', 'hasCustomDomain': false, 'httpsEnabled': true, 'enabledCommentProfileImages': true, 'gPlusViewType': 'FILTERED_POSTMOD', 'adultContent': false, 'analyticsAccountNumber': '', 'encoding': 'UTF-8', 'locale': 'en', 'localeUnderscoreDelimited': 'en', 'languageDirection': 'ltr', 'isPrivate': false, 'isMobile': false, 'isMobileRequest': false, 'mobileClass': '', 'isPrivateBlog': false, 'isDynamicViewsAvailable': false, 'feedLinks': '\x3clink rel\x3d\x22alternate\x22 type\x3d\x22application/atom+xml\x22 title\x3d\x22Neal Gafter\x26#39;s blog - 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