[antlr-interest] Java and static arrays: a serious joke

[Terence Parr]

I have to laugh...Java is really showing growing pains.  I cannot  
allocate even small static arrays because it requires 6 bytes of code  
for each byte I want to put into a static array.  Yes, Java makes a  
class init method that manually builds these arrays!  At least it  
doesn't seem to wipe to zero first (or does it!? ack)  ;)

See http://www.jroller.com/page/rreyelts for a good explanation.  See  
March 16th entry.

public class T {
         static short[] a = {10, 20};
}

generates:

static {};
   Code:
    0:   iconst_2
    1:   newarray short
    3:   dup
    4:   iconst_0
    5:   bipush  10 <- YIKES!
    7:   sastore
    8:   dup
    9:   iconst_1
    10:  bipush  20
    12:  sastore
    13:  putstatic       #2; //Field a:[S
    16:  return

Same thing, but in ctor when nonstatic. :(

So, what the HELL are we going to do in order to store transition  
tables for DFA in Java?  Load the data from the disk?  gawwwd!   
Seriously?  How can you load static data into a Java class?

Regarding all that extra code laying around, one comment on that page  
says:

"So the obvious answer is to put the initializer into a separate  
class, and to always create a new ClassLoader to load that class, and  
let the ClassLoader and class code be garbage-collected after you've  
created your initial instance of the array which you can then clone()  
at will. "

But that doesn't solve the issue that you still have to get it to FIT  
into a single class.

AH HA!  Just looked at JFLex..they store them as strings, which are  
UTF8 in the class file.

public class T {
         static final String duh = "\1\2\3";
}

generates everything directly in the classfile constant pool!   
Hooray!  Now I have to encode, decode, but it's doable!  Thanks, JFlex!

Ter