On 2 June 2011 14:11, James Grahn <grahn...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 3:06 AM, Peter Firmstone <j...@zeus.net.au> wrote: >> Are you suggesting type safety is NOT a necessary language feature in >> distributed code? > > Not at all. > > However, type safety is not a feature which is the exclusive terrain > of the compiler. With the force of sufficient reasoning, type safe > code can be written without the compiler's explicit blessing. >
I recall one of the reasons for introducing generics was because force of sufficient reasoning proved ineffective such that people would get runtime casting problems when extracting objects from collections. Regardless we can have an endless debate about this or do some practical experimentation. So.... Why don't you branch Outrigger, spec a new JavaSpace interface (e.g. JavaSpace2011) and then release it as an experiment to the community at large? That way you can: (1) See what uptake/appetite is like (2) Gain valuable feedback (3) See if the community finds dark corners and has views on what they want done about them (if anything) That will make for a much more informed debate IMHO.... (and I'm not saying the debate we're having at the moment isn't useful but some of us have more experience than others and conflicting views which makes progress hard. A good way to solve that is put something out into the real-world and see what happens).
