The Java Language Specification, Java SE 8 Edition

James Gosling is the creator of the Java programming language and a former Fellow at Sun Microsystems. He developed the original Java compiler and Java Virtual Machine, and was a principal in the Andrew project at Carnegie Mellon University, where he earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science. He joined Liquid Robotics as Chief Software Architect in 2011. Bill Joy is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and was the principal architect of the Berkeley version of UNIX(r), for which he received a lifetime achievement award from the USENIX Association in 1993. Joy has had a central role in shaping the Java programming language. He joined KPCB as a Greentech Partner in 2005. Guy L. Steele Jr. is a Software Architect at Oracle Labs, where he conducts research in language design and implementation strategies, parallel algorithms, and computer arithmetic. Steele is a co-creator of the Scheme programming language, an ACM Fellow, an IEEE Fellow, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Gilad Bracha is the creator of the Newspeak programming language and a former Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems. Prior to Sun, he worked on Strongtalk, the Animorphic Smalltalk System. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Utah. Alex Buckley is the Specification Lead for the Java programming language and the Java Virtual Machine at Oracle. He holds a Ph.D. in Computing from Imperial College London.

Preface to the Java SE 8 Edition    xxi

Chapter 1: Introduction    1

1.1 Organization of the Specification   2

1.2 Example Programs   6

1.3 Notation   6

1.4 Relationship to Predefined Classes and Interfaces   7

1.5 Feedback   7

1.6 References   7

Chapter 2: Grammars    9

2.1 Context-Free Grammars   9

2.2 The Lexical Grammar   9

2.3 The Syntactic Grammar   10

2.4 Grammar Notation   10

Chapter 3: Lexical Structure    15

3.1   Unicode   15

3.2   Lexical Translations   16

3.3   Unicode Escapes   17

3.4   Line Terminators   19

3.5   Input Elements and Tokens   19

3.6   White Space   20

3.7   Comments   21

3.8   Identifiers   22

3.9   Keywords   24

3.10 Literals   24

3.11 Separators   38

3.12 Operators   38

Chapter 4: Types, Values, and Variables    41

4.1   The Kinds of Types and Values   41

4.2   Primitive Types and Values   42

4.3   Reference Types and Values   52

4.4   Type Variables   57

4.5   Parameterized Types   59

4.6   Type Erasure   64

4.7   Reifiable Types   64

4.8   Raw Types   66

4.9   Intersection Types   70

4.10 Subtyping   71

4.11 Where Types Are Used   75

4.12 Variables   80

Chapter 5: Conversions and Contexts    91

5.1 Kinds of Conversion   94

5.2 Assignment Contexts   107

5.3 Invocation Contexts   112

5.4 String Contexts   114

5.5 Casting Contexts   114

5.6 Numeric Contexts   124

Chapter 6: Names    129

6.1 Declarations   130

6.2 Names and Identifiers   137

6.3 Scope of a Declaration   139

6.4 Shadowing and Obscuring   142

6.5 Determining the Meaning of a Name   148

6.6 Access Control   161

6.7 Fully Qualified Names and Canonical Names   169

Chapter 7: Packages    173

7.1 Package Members   173

7.3 Compilation Units   177

7.4 Package Declarations &...