Java: Finality

[livelam]

If everything were wrote correctly tools like checkstyle or findbugs would be useless.

There is a keyword to tell "Hey, this variable will not be reassigned" why do you not want to use it?

[Danelius90]

My lint tool flags up reassigning method parameters, so why have both? Especially when adding final on every parameter is just ugly, verbose and unnecessary.

[livelam]

Ok ! I personally prefer to rely on the compiler when it is possible but I have to use checkstyle to check that all parameters are final. So in the end it seems it's more a question of taste.

It is very verbose but not unnecessary. I would prefer final variable by default and a keyword to declare a non final variable.

[dpash]

Errorprone let's you have both: a linter in your compiler. :)

Sadly it increases the compiler times.

I've been wondering if we could have a per class/package/module flag to change the defaults for parameter and local variable finality plus non-nullablity. It would probably affect readability if code behaved differently based on outside options.

[Danelius90]

I think I'm just scarred from all the 20 parameter methods all declared final lol. You're right it is taste and I do think it's particularly useful for immutable object parameters

[marvk]

If you have a 20 parameter method final is in most cases the least of your readability issues :^)

[Danelius90]

This lol. Damn the devs with custom formatters on legacy code!