[GROOVY-4614] what does a static outer class declaration mean?

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 1.7.5
• Fix Version/s: 1.8-beta-4
• Assignee: Guillaume Sauthier
• Reporter: Andy Clement
• Created: 04/Jan/11 16:21
• Updated: 08/Feb/11 23:25
• Resolved: 03/Feb/11 15:33

Description

I'm not sure what is supposed to happen here - you might just need to clarify what it means and close it....

If I write this

static class C {
}

groovyc will compile it. It will produce (as far as I can tell) a classfile identical to:

class C {
}

Does static have some special meaning? Maybe it should be getting policed? I imagine static has only been supported in that position since inner type support was added. Doing the same thing in Java shows:

C.java:1: modifier static not allowed here
static class C {
       ^
1 error

I could imagine static might have forced singleton behaviour in some way but it doesn't - the generated class still has a constructor, I can write my own constructor, etc.