Improve type conversions

[Ladicek]

Fixes #177

[Ladicek]

Probably best to review each commit in isolation.

I made the "smart cast" operation a Gizmo.smartCast() static method. It felt wrong to make it a method on BytecodeCreator, because it doesn't correspond to anything the JVM or the Java language would do, but I realize this makes it less discoverable. I could probably be persuaded to move it.

[mkouba]

I made the "smart cast" operation a Gizmo.smartCast() static method. It felt wrong to make it a method on BytecodeCreator, because it doesn't correspond to anything the JVM or the Java language would do, but I realize this makes it less discoverable. I could probably be persuaded to move it.

We should at least add link/note to Gizmo.smartCast() in the javadoc of BytecodeCreator#checkCast() and BytecodeCreator#convertPrimitive()...

[gsmet]

Yeah, I think we should favor discoverability.

[Ladicek]

OK, so I think I finally fixed primitive conversions in case of byte, short and char (my previous belief that these conversions are implicit, since the values are ints on the JVM stack, was sorely mistaken).

So now we just need to agree on where the "smart cast" operation should be.

[mkouba]

So now we just need to agree on where the "smart cast" operation should be.

For me, the static method is fine but on the other hand I don't think that the BytecodeCreator must only contain stuff that would correspond to anything the JVM or the Java language would do... so maybe you should be persuaded to move it ;-).

[gsmet]

If it wasn't clear, I'm in the BytecodeCreator camp :).

[Ladicek]

OK, you guys have made your opinion very clear. Moved to BytecodeCreator :-)

[holly-cummins]

It looks like this got lost a bit, so nudging it. :)

[Ladicek]

Ah sorry, totally forgot about this!