src/share/classes/javax/lang/model/element/ElementVisitor.java
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/*
! * Copyright (c) 2005, 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
* DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
*
* This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
* under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
* published by the Free Software Foundation. Oracle designates this
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/*
! * Copyright (c) 2005, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
* DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
*
* This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
* under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
* published by the Free Software Foundation. Oracle designates this
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* abstract visitor class that implements this interface. However, an
* API should generally use this visitor interface as the type for
* parameters, return type, etc. rather than one of the abstract
* classes.
*
+ * <p>Note that methods to accommodate new language constructs could
+ * be added in a source <em>compatible</em> way if they were added as
+ * <em>default methods</em>. However, default methods are only
+ * available on Java SE 8 and higher releases and the {@code
+ * javax.lang.model.*} packages bundled in Java SE 8 are required to
+ * also be runnable on Java SE 7. Therefore, default methods
+ * <em>cannot</em> be used when extending {@code javax.lang.model.*}
+ * to cover Java SE 8 language features. However, default methods may
+ * be used in subsequent revisions of the {@code javax.lang.model.*}
+ * packages that are only required to run on Java SE 8 and higher
+ * platform versions.
+ *
* @param <R> the return type of this visitor's methods. Use {@link
* Void} for visitors that do not need to return results.
* @param <P> the type of the additional parameter to this visitor's
* methods. Use {@code Void} for visitors that do not need an
* additional parameter.