| /* |
| * Copyright (c) 2005, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. |
| * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER. |
| * |
| * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it |
| * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as |
| * published by the Free Software Foundation. Oracle designates this |
| * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided |
| * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code. |
| * |
| * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT |
| * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or |
| * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License |
| * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that |
| * accompanied this code). |
| * |
| * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version |
| * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, |
| * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA. |
| * |
| * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA |
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| */ |
| |
| /** |
| * Interfaces used to model elements of the Java programming language. |
| * |
| * The term "element" in this package is used to refer to program |
| * elements, the declared entities that make up a program. Elements |
| * include classes, interfaces, methods, constructors, and fields. |
| * The interfaces in this package do not model the structure of a |
| * program inside a method body; for example there is no |
| * representation of a {@code for} loop or {@code try}-{@code finally} |
| * block. However, the interfaces can model some structures only |
| * appearing inside method bodies, such as local variables and |
| * anonymous classes. |
| * |
| * <p>When used in the context of annotation processing, an accurate |
| * model of the element being represented must be returned. As this |
| * is a language model, the source code provides the fiducial |
| * (reference) representation of the construct in question rather than |
| * a representation in an executable output like a class file. |
| * Executable output may serve as the basis for creating a modeling |
| * element. However, the process of translating source code to |
| * executable output may not permit recovering some aspects of the |
| * source code representation. For example, annotations with |
| * {@linkplain java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy#SOURCE source} |
| * {@linkplain java.lang.annotation.Retention retention} cannot be |
| * recovered from class files and class files might not be able to |
| * provide source position information. |
| * |
| * Names of parameters may not be recoverable from class files. |
| * |
| * The {@linkplain javax.lang.model.element.Modifier modifiers} on an |
| * element may differ in some cases including: |
| * |
| * <ul> |
| * <li> {@code strictfp} on a class or interface |
| * <li> {@code final} on a parameter |
| * <li> {@code protected}, {@code private}, and {@code static} on classes and interfaces |
| * </ul> |
| * |
| * Additionally, synthetic constructs in a class file, such as |
| * accessor methods used in implementing nested classes and bridge |
| * methods used in implementing covariant returns, are translation |
| * artifacts outside of this model. |
| * |
| * <p>During annotation processing, operating on incomplete or |
| * erroneous programs is necessary; however, there are fewer |
| * guarantees about the nature of the resulting model. If the source |
| * code is not syntactically well-formed or has some other |
| * irrecoverable error that could not be removed by the generation of |
| * new types, a model may or may not be provided as a quality of |
| * implementation issue. |
| * If a program is syntactically valid but erroneous in some other |
| * fashion, any returned model must have no less information than if |
| * all the method bodies in the program were replaced by {@code "throw |
| * new RuntimeException();"}. If a program refers to a missing type XYZ, |
| * the returned model must contain no less information than if the |
| * declaration of type XYZ were assumed to be {@code "class XYZ {}"}, |
| * {@code "interface XYZ {}"}, {@code "enum XYZ {}"}, or {@code |
| * "@interface XYZ {}"}. If a program refers to a missing type {@code |
| * XYZ<K1, ... ,Kn>}, the returned model must contain no less |
| * information than if the declaration of XYZ were assumed to be |
| * {@code "class XYZ<T1, ... ,Tn> {}"} or {@code "interface XYZ<T1, |
| * ... ,Tn> {}"} |
| * |
| * <p> Unless otherwise specified in a particular implementation, the |
| * collections returned by methods in this package should be expected |
| * to be unmodifiable by the caller and unsafe for concurrent access. |
| * |
| * <p> Unless otherwise specified, methods in this package will throw |
| * a {@code NullPointerException} if given a {@code null} argument. |
| * |
| * @author Joseph D. Darcy |
| * @author Scott Seligman |
| * @author Peter von der Ahé |
| * @since 1.6 |
| */ |
| package javax.lang.model.element; |
