[GROOVY-1522] catch block without explicit exception type results in VerifyError

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 1.0-JSR-6
• Fix Version/s: 1.1-beta-1
• Component/s: bytecode
• Environment: Windows 2000, JDK 1.6.0 b93 - using Groovy 1.0-jsr-6 through jsr-223 script engine.
• Assignee: Jochen Theodorou
• Reporter: Sundararajan
• Created: 07/Oct/06 03:47
• Updated: 21/Jan/07 16:52
• Resolved: 21/Jan/07 16:52

Description

When I tried the following script:

try {
throw new Exception();
} catch(e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}

I got the following VerifyError:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.VerifyError: (class: Script1, method: run s
ignature: ()Ljava/lang/Object catch_type not a subclass of Throwable
at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredConstructors0(Native Method)
at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredConstructors(Class.java:2388)
at java.lang.Class.getConstructor0(Class.java:2698)
at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:326)
at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:308)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.InvokerHelper.createScript(InvokerHelper.java:529)
at com.sun.script.groovy.GroovyScriptEngine.eval(GroovyScriptEngine.java:190)
at com.sun.script.groovy.GroovyScriptEngine.eval(GroovyScriptEngine.java:82)
at com.sun.script.groovy.GroovyScriptEngine.eval(GroovyScriptEngine.java:76)
at javax.script.AbstractScriptEngine.eval(AbstractScriptEngine.java:232)
at com.sun.tools.script.shell.Main.evaluateReader(Main.java:314)
at com.sun.tools.script.shell.Main.evaluateStream(Main.java:350)
at com.sun.tools.script.shell.Main.processSource(Main.java:267)
at com.sun.tools.script.shell.Main.access$100(Main.java:19)
at com.sun.tools.script.shell.Main$2.run(Main.java:182)
at com.sun.tools.script.shell.Main.main(Main.java:30)

I suspect that for variable "e" in the catch clause above, "java.lang.Object" type is inferred. Either there should be error that says "use Throwable or subtype in catch clauses" or infer "java.lang.Throwable" as type when type is not specified. The VerifyError would be confusing to developers.