[GROOVY-8859] fix trait private method consistency

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 5.0.0-alpha-3
• Component/s: Compiler
• Labels: trait traits
• Assignee: Eric Milles
• Reporter: Eric Milles
• Created: 27/Oct/18 11:29
• Updated: 22/Dec/23 11:38
• Resolved: 18/Sep/23 14:13

Description

It seems that private in a trait is akin to protected in a class. For example a class that implements a trait may access private fields (through namespace syntax) and properties and call private static methods. And it may use Type.super.method() to disambiguate methods if necessary. Why, however, can a class that implements a trait not call private instance methods? This is not really covered in the language specification.

trait T {
    private void privit() {
        println 'private'
    }
    public void publik() {
        println 'public'
    }
}

class C implements T {
    def m() {
        publik()
        privit()
    }
}

new C().m()

This fails with missing method. But if static modifier is added to privit, it succeeds.

Issue Links

• is related to: GROOVY-7213 Private methods in traits cause compile time error if the class implementing trait is statically compiled