Java note: toarray

Because of the implementation of containers, the contained type cannot be instantiated within them. An inconvenient consequence is toArray. There are two ways to call it

1.
Object arr[] = list.toArray();

But it's not easy to change Object[] to Type[].

2.
Type arr[] = new Type[m];
list.toArray(arr);

But it would be much better not to have to allocate arr separately.

The next version of Java should really reconsider the implementation of templates.

Java note: generics

In Java 1.5 (and 1.6), generics is used by containers to avoid runtime type cast. Generics are not implemented in the same way as C++ templates, and are much less flexible. A generic class is compiled into only one class file, instead of one for each template instance. A big disadvantage is that a generic container cannot make new instances of its elements.

Java note: assertion

The assert statement in Java are ignored from compile by default. To enable assert, add -ea when compiling.

javac -ea example.java