[aspectj-users] no match for this type name...

[Michael McConnell <mcconnellem@xxxxxxxxx>]

Ramnivas -- At first I thought you were being sarcastic when you wrote:

> For the error message, how about something like:
> "Unknown type MessageCommunicator. Please ensure correct 
>  spelling and/or the type is visible to the source file
>  (check your import statements or use the fully-qualified 
>   type name)".

And then I saw the following:
> The downside I see is sheer verbosity of the message.
> Perhaps a better alternative is to point to document
> that elaborates on "Xlint:invalidAbsoluteTypeName".

I think the latter is much more preferable than the former. But I think *BOTH* miss the
point that I was trying to make earlier, which is: if I were using standard Java
(with/without Eclipse), and I had forgotten the package statement, I would have gotten
the following message: "The declared package does not match the expected package xxxxx". 

NOT the statement:  "no match for this type name: XXXX [Xlint:invalidAbsoluteTypeName]".

I mean --- this is almost as good as a 1970's ABEND NNNN statement.

In your book, you state that ajc is a superset of javac. Which is fine as far as it goes,
but (I wish the AJC developers had decided to) add in the syntax and semantics that AOP
requires, but *don't mess with standard java*, especially the error messages and warnings
that you would expect to see if *writing standard Java*. If the package and import
statements are valid within an aspect, treat them as they would a standard Java
statement, and issue the standard messages we have all grown to know and love.

NONE of this is YOUR FAULT. However, there was a suggestion on this forum to start
documenting errors like as to probable causes. As much as it would have helped me, I
would prefer that aspect users get together and start demanding tools from ajc developers
that build upon the knowledge that they already know, and do not require
learning/generating differential diagnoses for symptoms they have never seen. 

FWTW,
Michael


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