Bugzilla – Full Text Bug Listing
| Summary: | Syntax error message from Java compiler is confusing. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Product: | [Eclipse Project] JDT | Reporter: | Wylie Garvin <wylie_garvin> |
| Component: | Core | Assignee: | David Audel <david_audel> |
| Status: | VERIFIED FIXED | QA Contact: | |
| Severity: | normal | ||
| Priority: | P3 | ||
| Version: | 2.0 | ||
| Target Milestone: | 3.0 M2 | ||
| Hardware: | PC | ||
| OS: | Windows 2000 | ||
| Whiteboard: | |||
Deferring post 2.1 Reconsidering given new syntax error diagnosis heuristic Fixed. The new error message is: Syntax error on token "Fribbit", VariableDeclarator expected after this token Verified. |
I created a new Class and typed the following into it: public class FOOBY { Fribbit; } On saving this class, I get a syntax error at the ";" after Fribbit. The compiler message is confusing because it does not distinguish the actual token it stopped at with the list of tokens it would accept instead: Syntax error on token ";", "=", "*=", "/=", "%=", "+=", "- =", "<<=", ">>=", ">>>=", "&=", "^=", "|=" expected The list of expected alternatives is comma-separated, and the actual token is followed by a comma. It just looks like one big list. Suggestion: put the 'expected' before the list: Syntax error on token ";", expected "=", "*=", ... In cases like this, it would be more useful anyway if the message said: Syntax error on token ";", expected assignment-operator I.e. any time the list of alternatives is longer than 3, it is more distracting than actually useful.