Name: gm110360			Date: 02/04/2002


FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
java version "1.4.0-rc"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.0-rc-b91)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.0-rc-b91, mixed mode)


FULL OPERATING SYSTEM VERSION :



A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
A number of modern languages (most recently, Python) support syntax-level creation and modification of certain basic extremely common data types, including strings, extensible arrays, and dictionaries.  Java's facilities here are unnecessarily poor.  Consider the following grotesque but sadly common example:

Vector vec = new Vector();
vec.addElement(new Double(2.3));
vec.addElement(new Double(4.5));
vec.addElement(new Double(3.1));
vec.addElement(new Double(2.6));
double d = ((Double)(vec.elementAt(2))).doubleValue();

...as opposed to an alternative syntax:
double[] vec = new double[0];
vec += 2.3; vec += 4.5; vec += 3.1; vec += 2.6;
double d = vec[2];

...or if the += and + operators would be better suited to array concatenation, even a functional form would be preferred over the current monstrosity:

double[] vec = new double[0];
vec.push(2.3).push(4.5).push(3.1).push(2.6);
double d = vec[2];

Given that Java has no multidimensional arrays, this is a trivially easy thing to add to the semantics of the language.  Just lazily define arrays as fixed-length until they are acted upon with variable-length operators, and then upgrade them to variable-length.

While we're at it, Java's hashtable (and HashMap/HashSet) facility is similarly grotesque, not permitting numbers or string values as keys, and requiring a nasty syntax:

Hashtable h = new Hashtable();
h.put("key1","value1");
h.put("key2","value2");
h.put("key3","value3");

...instead of something like:

Hashtable h =
   << "key1","value1" : "key2","value2", "key3","value3">>;

These objects are so basic to Java that the enormously wordy syntax they rely on is only a hindrance.


This bug can be reproduced always.
(Review ID: 139148) 
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