Re: [Java] Function Binding Redux (long post)

John Moeller wrote:
> I think I see where you're going, but it won't work.  At the point where 
> you "subclass or otherwise use" and then compile, the compiler will 
> error out.  If the compiler can't find the dependent class, the target 
> class will fail to compile.  I tried this.

Yea, I see that now that I've spent today trying out the test I 
mentioned. But it turns out it's worse...

> Additionally, as I explain in more detail in my other response, you 
> can't, in class D, try to load class C explicitly and then use it 
> implicitly.  In the process of loading class D, the JVM can try to load 
> class C and any other class that D depends on, before it even runs one 
> speck of code from class D.

So on the suggestion from JW (John Welch), I tried an experiment. He 
suggested a rather devious possible solution; Create an empty stub 
*.java and corresponding *.class that loads the native class:

====java
package boost;

public class A
{
     static {
         java.lang.System.out.println("stub/boost/A/static_init...");
         java.lang.System.loadLibrary("boost_A.dll");
     }
}
====

And as part of the loadLibrary() redefine the same class to the 
native+JNI version (see attached test code). Hence when one uses the A 
class, it can be loaded, but one is freed from having to declare all the 
redundant Java members. But, and it's a big one, it seems the Java 
compiler *does not load* a class in order to use it during compilation. 
Rather it seems to read the .class file directly. Which seems to me a 
rather serious case of false advertising from Sun.

> Unless, that is, you use class C 
> explicitly, through Reflection.  Which is a gross way to use a class.

Yes, that's fairly gross. Given your experiments, and mine, this only 
leaves your suggestion of interfaces or of a launcher that puts in a 
custom class loader.


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