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cajo is an amazing project...

That is pretty amazing, but wouldn't it be even nicer if generics were used to eliminate all the casting? I know they don't want to break compatibility with Java 1.4, but still - shouldn't it at least be considered?

That's a good point, but then again, when you compare this code with the overhead of something like RMI, it really is a minimal amount of casting involved ;-)

I think John's trying to keep it as compatible with as many java versions as possible, and I guess there are still quite a few 1.4 installations out there

Sorry to come into the dialogue late...

First off: Thanks for the compliments! It takes a lot of personal time to implement this; words like yours, really keep me going. :-)

Daniel, when you wrote "eliminate all the casting," frankly I was a bit confused by that.

The only cast in both example classes was:

ClientSet cs = (ClientSet)cajo.proxy(refs[0], ClientSet.class);

However, this instance method is a bit unusual; the type it returns, depends on the class of the methodSet argument it receives.

As far as I know, Java Generics does not have the ability to describe such a method.

If you know, please share.

All the best,

John

You could do:

public T proxy( Object[] refs, Class clazz )

I *believe* to get the return value not requiring a cast...

[edit] I posted this on the blog entry as well, so we don't end up with 2 conversations going on at once ;-)

Hey Tim,

Thanks for the suggestion!

If the proxy method in Grail.java is re-defined thus:

T proxy(Object reference, Class methodSetInterface);

The cast could be moved into Cajo.java:

return (T)TransparentItemProxy...

Very nice! :-)

Unfortunately, as I'm sure you've guessed; requiring users to migrate to Java 1.5+ is currently just not practical.

John

Hey Tim,

Thanks for the suggestion!

If the proxy method in Grail.java is re-defined thus:

<T> T proxy(Object reference, Class methodSetInterface);

The cast could be moved into Cajo.java:

return (T)TransparentItemProxy...

Very nice! :-)

Unfortunately, as I'm sure you've guessed; requiring users to migrate to Java 1.5+ is currently just not practical.

John