Re:subclassing (Score 1)

You don't even have to do casting... just do something like this:

SomeClass* some_obj = ...; memset(some_obj,NULL,sizeof(some_obj));

Which would wipe out anything... this is a problem will languages like C/C++, where they are just putting a pretty face on assembler.

Now, try and get around the class verifier in JDK 1.2... that will be a much harder task.

My response is: Why give a monkey a gun? Programmers with lots of experience will know what to do, but junior programmers (I bet you were a junior programmer once... try to think back... :D) are more likely to run amok without a little hand-holding. The fact that in C I can do:

char some_buf[512];

memset(some_buf,NULL,513);

and the execution is "undetermined", meaning that I could have wiped out something important on the stack but I won't know it until something crashes later is a big problem. I don't think you want to waste hours picking through dumps just to find that "Willy the Intern" blew it because C is an unfriendly place.

-Chris

Yes, the C code is contrived, but you get my idea.