Java 8 Interface Binding

[jonpryor]

Android N uses new Java 8 language features such as interface default methods and interface static methods, which are features that tools/generator hasn't had to deal with before.

The question: how should they be dealt with?

 // Java
 public interface HelloJava8 {
 public static final int VALUE = 42;
 public void a ();
 public default void defaultMethod() {
 }
 public static void staticMethod() {
 }
 }

There are at least three ways to do so:

1. Ignore them.
2. Expose them.
3. Treat them specially.

Ignore them

Interface default methods don't need to be implemented, and static methods aren't implementable. The binding mechanism could thus simply ignore them entirely.

 // C#
 public interface IHelloJava8 {
 public void A ();
 }
 public static class HelloJava8 {
 public const int Value = 42;
 }

This isn't entirely desirable, because it also means default interface methods can't be called.

 IHelloJava8 value = ...
 value.DefaultMethod(); // error
 // No way to invoke HelloJava8.staticMethod()

On the plus side, implementors don't need to worry about them:

 public class WootJava8 : Java.Lang.Object, IHelloJava8 {
 public void A () {}
 }

Expose them

The "simple" version of "expose them" is do the simple thing: static methods are bound in the constant-containing static class, and default methods are bound as normal methods:

 // C#
 public interface IHelloJava8 {
 public void A ();
 public void DefaultMethod ();
 }
 public static partial class HelloJava8 {
 public const int Value = 42;
 public void StaticMethod ()
 {...}
 }

This allows calling both methods:

 IHelloJava8 value = ...
 value.DefaultMethod(); // works
 HelloJava8.StaticMethod(); // works

However, this means that C# subclasses need to implement all the default methods:

 public class WootJava8 : Java.Lang.Object, IHelloJava8 {
 public void A () {}
 public void DefaultMethod () {...}
 }

This might not seem bad in this example, but java.util.Collection contains five default methods (one inherited from Iterable).

This might be fine and acceptable, and we could help this scenario by providing access to the default method implementation:

 public static partial class HelloJava8 {
 public void InvokeDefaultMethod(IHelloJava8 self)
 {
 /* Non-virtual invocation of HelloJava8.defaultMethod() */
 }
 }

 public partial class WootJava8 {
 public void DefaultMethod ()
 {
 HelloJava8.InvokeDefaultMethod (this);
 }
 }

However, such "help" will require documentation and training to know about, complicating use.

Treat them specially

To a large extent, the concern is around C# implementations of the interface. It is seen that requiring that optional methods be implemented will complicate the C# experience. Perhaps we can fix this by splitting out the optional methods?

Then, we can use extension methods to invoke the default methods:

 // C#
 public interface IHelloJava8 {
 public void A ();
 }
 public static partial class HelloJava8 {
 public const int Value = 42;
 public void StaticMethod ()
 {...}

 public void DefaultMethod (this IHelloJava8 self)
 {
 // *Virtual* dispatch to invoke self.defaultMethod()
 }

 public interface IDefaultMethods {
 public void DefaultMethod ();
 }
 }

This allows calling both methods:

 IHelloJava8 value = ...
 value.DefaultMethod(); // works via extension method
 HelloJava8.StaticMethod(); // works

It also means that C# types don't need to implement the default methods:

 public partial class WootJava8 : Java.Lang.Object, IHelloJava8 {
 public void A () {}
 }

...but if the C# type does want to implement them, they can all be implemented by using the IDefaultMethods interface:

 public partial class WootJava8 : HelloJava8.IDefaultMethods {
 public void DefaultMethod () {}
 }

[jonpryor]

At present, I'm leaning toward (2) Expose Them, if only because it's implementation is simple (though the documentation effort regarding the presence of HelloJava8.InvokeDefaultMethod() isn't simple).

[mtilbrook-dev]

I don't think ignoring them is an option.
I don't like (2) Expose Them. It adds unneeded name mangling. The documentation issue is also a major challenge.
I like (3) Treat them specially, It feels much cleaner from a consumer perspective.

[jonpryor]

I don't like (2) Expose Them. It adds unneeded name mangling.

I don't understand what you mean by "unneeded name mangling." What name mangling? The Invoke helpers?

The documentation issue is also a major challenge.

Agreed. However, (3) also has documentation issues, just different documentation issues.

[mtilbrook-dev]

Yes, the Invoke helper. Mangling might not have been the right language there.

What documentation do you think will be needed? I can understand that (2) Invoke Requiring docs

[jonpryor]

What documentation do you think will be needed [in (3)]?

The presence and use of the IDefaultMethods interface. It'll be a situation of "Java declares a HelloJava8.defaultMethod() interface method, and I can call that method from C#, but how do I implement that method in C#? It's not present in the IHelloJava8 interface." It's in the HelloJava8.IDefaultMethods interface, which code completion won't know about, and who's going to know to look for that interface without...documentation. :-)

(2) answers that question: it's an interface method, therefore you implement it. It's only when you don't want to implement the default interface method that documentation is required, or when you want to invoke the default behavior.

Both (2) and (3) raise the question of what to do with our "missing abstract method generator" (@radekdoulik? ;-) -- presumably it should check for and use the default interface method if present, but we'd need a way for the generator to know that (likely a new custom attribute).

[jonpryor]

Ignore them and Treat them specially don't interact well with Java versioning: default interface methods aren't restricted to new methods; existing methods can be made default!

Case in point: [java.lang.reflect.AnnotatedElement.html.isAnnotationPresent()](https://developer.android.com/reference/java/lang/reflect/AnnotatedElement.html#isAnnotationPresent%28java.lang.Class<? extends java.lang.annotation.Annotation>%29) is non-default in API-23 and is now default in API-24. The Ignore them and Treat them specially approaches result in removing the IsAnnotationPresent() method from the IAnnotatedElement interface, which would break all implementations.

This can be fixed in Mono.Android.dll -- we know what the previous API is, we can manually fixup such removed members -- but I'm dubious of the effects on 3rd party .jar bindings such as the Android Support library. I believe that most .jar bindings will consist of as little effort as possible to get a compiling binding, and if the .jar changes interface methods to default interface methods between versions, this can break existing C# interface implementations.

I'm very dubious of solutions (1) and (3) right now.

[jonpryor]

The Expose them (2) approach has a different problem: if default methods are added to an interface over time, that means that previously built C# classes implementing the interface will break.

Xamarin.Android 6.1 added some support to "fixup" added interface methods with an implementation that throws AbstractMethodError, which made sense then, but doesn't make sense in the context of default interface methods.

What we can instead do is place a custom attribute on the default method which refers to the class with the Invoke method wrapper:

public interface IHelloJava8 {
 public void A ();
 [JavaDefaultInterfaceMethod (typeof (HelloJava8))]
 public void DefaultMethod ();
}
partial public class HelloJava8 {
 public void InvokeDefaultMethod(IHelloJava8 self) {...}
}

The abstract method fixup code could then fixup "missing" interface methods to invoke the default method:

/* IHelloJava8 vPrev lacks defaultMethod(), for arguments sake */
class MyHello : IHelloJava8 {
 public void A () {}
 // NO implementation of DefaultMethod()
}

During Xamarin.Android packaging, we would fix MyHello to be:

class MyHello : IHelloJava8 {
 public void A () {}
 public void DefaultMethod()
 {
 HelloJava8.InvokeDefaultMethod (this);
 }
}

This would extend the existing support for versioned interfaces in a natural manner, causing the generated method implementation to invoke the default method instead of throwing an exception.

[atsushieno]

While all of those choices have problems, their severity on the issues are different.

I believe 1) is the only choice we can take with least problem so far (and that's what we do right now). It is the most conservative and the safest on future API breakage than other choices. By choosing 2) or 3) you would have already brought troubles regarding IAudioRouting fixes.
dotnet/android@576fb98

Default interface methods that "used to be non-default" can be "fixed" by binding authors to change "abstract" attribute on the method i.e.:

<attr path="/path/to/the/method" name="abstract">true</attr>

It should be also noted that those binding authors should be responsible to API changes. They can be the only responsible party.

2. Apart from the known obvious issue, IAudioRouting.OnRoutingChangedListener also exposed another issue: it is possible for Java8 to add a new base interfaces to an existing interface without API breakage when such new base interfaces only have default methods. If you blindly bind those default methods in C#, it (of course) results in API breakage (i.e. missing method implementation) to any implementor of the interface.

It should be noted that once we expose extraneous methods to implement, especially at generator level, and we find any fatal problem (like we did for IAudioRouting), we cannot go back to the original state because it would already bring API breakage to everyone. It is the worst scenario.

3. is almost 1), plus that there is slight chance for some problem that extension method could bring future compatibility issue regarding member resolution, especially because it resides in the same namespace as the primary interface.

Having said that 3) is worth implementing and probably even providing as an opt-in feature.

[ddobrev]

Please fix because we cannot use the latest ExoPlayer.

[atsushieno]

You should report specific, individual, actual issues as a new issue, not here without details.

The support for default interface methods is implemented at #341 (when I was at Xamarin)