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* ORACLE PROPRIETARY/CONFIDENTIAL. Use is subject to license terms.
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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. 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;