RE: Closures

> The problem with any particular bit of sugar is that it 
> hampers this movement.  

Right. While I'm against any wholesale revision of syntax like Groovy's
(e.g. the "optional" semicolons, the unpredictable (by humans) end-of-line
semantics :-/), you could consider BeanShell to be a testbed for trying out
of new features for Java.

No feature should be added into a language without some real-life trial and
error, with the syntax, the semantics, the benefits and pitfalls fully
understood; a scripting language like BeanShell can be a fine testbed
because of its user base.

(And BeanShell *does* have some features that make back-porting of code to
Java "difficult" - e.g. untyped variables. But I don't think anyone will
argue that untyped variables be dropped from BeanShell, for obvious reasons
beyond "compatibility"..)

It's too bad JSR65 (concise array literals) was abandoned - it's a simple
extension that has an unambiguous and easily understood meaning (esp. in
conjunction with auto-boxing), and improves code readability tremendously.
But BeanShell can be a testbed for such a feature if it is to be
re-introduced in the future.




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