13.4.21 Method and Constructor Body

Changes to the body of a method or constructor do not break compatibility with pre-existing binaries.

We note that a compiler cannot inline expand a method at compile time unless, for example, either:

• the method is private to its class
• an entire package is guaranteed to be kept together and the method is accessible only within that package
• a set of Java code is being compiled to a special binary format where the specified method is available only within a binary or set of binaries which are being kept together.

The keyword final on a method does not mean that the method can be safely inlined; it only means that the method cannot be overridden. Unless the compiler has extraordinary knowledge, it is still possible that a new version of that method will be provided at link time.

In general we suggest that Java implementations use late-bound (run-time) code generation and optimization.