BINARY COMPATIBILITY

public

Interfaces

13.5.1

If

Super

 is recompiled but not

Hyper

 or

Test

, then running the new binary with

the existing binaries for

Hyper

 and

Test

 will produce the output:

Goodbye, cruel world!

This example demonstrates that the invocation in:

s.world();

in the method

main

 is resolved, at compile time, to a symbolic reference to the

class containing the class method

world

, as though it had been written:

Hyper.world();

This is why the

world

 method of

Hyper

 rather than

Super

 is invoked in this

example. Of course, recompiling all the classes to produce new binaries will allow

the output:

Goodbye, cruel earth!

to be produced.

13.4.24   Static Initializers

Adding, deleting, or changing a static initializer ( 8.5) of a class does not impact

pre existing binaries.

13.5   Evolution of Interfaces

This section describes the impact of changes to the declaration of an interface and

its members on pre existing binaries.

13.5.1

public

Interfaces

Changing an interface that is not declared

public

 to be declared

public

 does not

break compatibility with pre existing binaries.

If an interface that is declared

public

 is changed to not be declared

public

,

then an

IllegalAccessError

 is thrown if a pre existing binary is linked that

needs but no longer has access to the interface type, so such a change is not rec 

ommended for widely distributed interfaces.

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