Name: rmT116609			Date: 05/01/2003


A DESCRIPTION OF THE REQUEST :
Add the ability to mark objects where the value ofString.valueOf() would included in any stack trace.  In my example below I used "trace". Variables that aren't declared at the point of the stack trace would just be ingored.

JUSTIFICATION :
It would make debugging much easier and make it much easier to write programs that are easy to debug.

 

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
java.lang.NullPointerException:
	at Test.main(Test.java:7) index=0, sum=3, obj=null
java.lang.NullPointerException:
	at Test.main(Engine.java:124)

Or doesn't compile if the "trace" keyword is included.

---------- BEGIN SOURCE ----------
public class Test {
  Object obj;
  public void main(String[] args) trace obj {
    trace int sum = 0;
    for(trace int index = 0; index < args.length; index++) {
      sum += Integer.parseInt(args[index]);
      sum += obj.hashCode();//Will cause NullPointerException
    }
  }
}

---------- END SOURCE ----------

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
Catch Throwable and re-throw it with more info. The method would also have to be declared to throw Throwable.
(Review ID: 182848) 
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