8371795: Improve documentation of Class.isInstance #28684
+78
−58
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The 3 methods to determine conversions and subtyping on
java.lang.Class, which areisInstance,cast, andisAssignableFrom, have their documentation from the earliest days of the Java Platform. During the language evolution, a lot of terms have become inaccurate, such as "assignment-compatible", which does not apply for primitive types, and the out-of-date instanceof analogy with the upcoming patterns, inisInstance;isAssignableFromis not very clear about arrays;castwould also benefit from more detailed explanations.In my facelift, I moved the subtyping description to
isAssignableFrom, and left the conversion stuff inisInstanceandcast. I intentionally avoided linking to too many JLS chapters to reduce confusions. I believe in this shape, we have a good amount of easily comprehensible yet accurate specification for all 3 methods, and users are welcome to read the linked JLS chapters for more details and context.Progress
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gitCheckout this PR locally:
$ git fetch https://git.openjdk.org/jdk.git pull/28684/head:pull/28684$ git checkout pull/28684Update a local copy of the PR:
$ git checkout pull/28684$ git pull https://git.openjdk.org/jdk.git pull/28684/headUsing Skara CLI tools
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https://git.openjdk.org/jdk/pull/28684.diff
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