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Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 10:24:14 +0700
From: "Mikhail Loenko" <mloenko@gmail.com>
To: harmony-dev@incubator.apache.org
Subject: Re: [classlib] compatibility of toString
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References: <2c9597b90606300814s491fba4ar2841e8ae61d198e1@mail.gmail.com>
	 <636fd28e0606301453o6478f51asaeee042a779be43b@mail.gmail.com>
	 <4d0b24970606302343v2b11357re7eca58d98f50a32@mail.gmail.com>
	 <636fd28e0607010009o6a4a3a0av3cf612270f00872d@mail.gmail.com>
	 <4d0b24970607010032u11a8fba4y8305913eea5fb962@mail.gmail.com>
	 <44A8EC74.1030007@gmail.com> <44A939F7.1000102@pobox.com>
	 <44A9CBCB.9080506@gmail.com> <44AA595A.7030804@pobox.com>
	 <44AB215E.80700@gmail.com>

IIRC Geir was going to ask Sun if we are allowed to copy their
exception messages

Thanks,
Mikhail

2006/7/5, Richard Liang <richard.liangyx@gmail.com>:
>
>
> Geir Magnusson Jr wrote:
> > Richard Liang wrote:
> >
> >> Geir Magnusson Jr wrote:
> >>
> >>> Tim Ellison wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>> Yep, if the spec tells you what the format of the string should be then
> >>>> follow it (since apps may be dependent upon it), otherwise I'd be
> >>>> inclined to invent your own useful string representation.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>> This idea scares me.  I think people do depend on toString() when
> >>> writing apps, and tend to shove that kind of thing to log files and such
> >>> on server apps.  To have our outptut different from Sun's, BEA's, IBM's,
> >>> Apple's seens like we're asking for trouble.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >> Hello Geir,
> >>
> >> IMHO, as long as the method does not give confusing message to
> >> developers, we are not required to have the same behavior. You may want
> >> to refer to the spec of java.lang.Object.toString:
> >> ...
> >> In general, the toString method returns a string that "textually
> >> represents" this object. The result should be a concise but informative
> >> representation that is easy for **a person to read**.
> >> ...
> >>
> >
> > Sure, but that doesn't mean that it would be reasonable to randomly
> > change the output of a given Class's toString() as long as it would be
> > easy for a person to read :)
> >
> > I know that's not what you are advocating, and I certainly agree that no
> > one should depend on toString() output like that, but I also know that
> > in production systems *I* have done it, and I'm sure others have as well.
> >
> >
> >> And there are some cases that we even cannot follow RI.
> >> e.g.,
> >> URLConnection conn = new URL("http://www.apache.org").openConnection();
> >> System.out.println(conn.toString());
> >>
> >> The code above will print
> >> "sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection:http://www.apache.org"
> >>
> >> Any comments? Thanks a lot.
> >>
> >
> > Well, we could actually print that if that was our impl of URLConnection
> > for HTTP, but still, I think
> >
> > "org.apache.harmony.whatever.HttpURLConnection:http://www.apache.org"
> >
> > would be more reasonable than
> >
> > "Implementing Class : org.apache.harmony.whatever.HttpURLConnection,
> > Target URI : http://www.apache.org"
> >
> > or something like that, even thought the second is perfectly good.
> >
> > All I'm saying is that unless the output from the RI's toString() is
> > particularly brain-dead, it doesn't seem to be too much of a bother to
> > be similar.
> >
> >
> Agree. And in fact, it's easier to have the same output as RI's if we
> are allowed. :-) Could we think this rule also apply to the message when
> an exception is thrown?
>
> Any comments? Thanks a lot.
>
> Best regards,
> Richard
>
> > Just my $0.02
> >
> > geir
> >
> >
> >> Best regards,
> >> Richard
> >>
> >>> geir
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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> >
> >
> >
>
> --
> Richard Liang
> China Software Development Lab, IBM
>
>
>

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