en_dmitriid

It seems to me that dynamic languages...That is, languages which have more dynamics built in... That is, nice languages to put it simply :)) Well, they rule.

I've been browsing Jakarta Commons' source code using http://www.koders.com/ (I actualy only needed their WordUtils in order to rewrite them in ColdFusion). An then I see Validate.java:

    public static void isTrue(boolean expression, String message, Object value) {
        if (expression == false) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(message + value);
        }
    }

    public static void isTrue(boolean expression, String message, long value) {
        if (expression == false) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(message + value);
        }
    }

    public static void isTrue(boolean expression, String message, double value) {
        if (expression == false) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(message + value);
        }
    }

    public static void isTrue(boolean expression) {
        if (expression == false) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("The validated expression is false");
        }
    }

:)) Static typing is the answer to everything they say, but at what cost? :))) I wonder if this could be rewritten... ColdFusion-style:

<cffunction name="isTrue">
    <cfargument name="expression" type="boolean" required="yes">    
    <cfargument name="message" type="string" required="no">
    <cfargument name="value" type="any" required="no">  
	
	<cfset msg=IIF(IsDefined('arguments.message'), DE(arguments.message), DE("The validated expression is false"))>
	<cfset v=IIF(IsDefined('arguments.value'), DE(arguments.value), DE(""))>
	
	<cfif arguments.expression EQ false>
		<cfthrow type="IllegalArgumentException" message=msg & ToString(v)>
    </cfif>
</cffunction>

Key moments here are required="true|false" in argument definitions and the IsDefined('arguments....') function which, well, defines whether optional arguments exist. Oh, and don't forget about type="any" which allows you to pass arguments of any type. And the ToString function :)

Function overloading - is, undoubtedly, great. But I'll trade it IsDefined most of the time (when it's uses are justified, of course :) )

PS. Correct me if I'm wrong, but does Java really not have access to the array of arguments passed to a function? And I'm not talking about Variable arity.