Something I Would Love To Do In Java

Java is a pretty cool language, and I think it is good for teaching the basics about programming. The following is just something I look forward to doing in future versions of Java if Object literals are added.

Here is how u define a rectangle in JavaFX using Java at the moment

Rectangle rect = new Rectangle();
   rect.setFill(Color.RED);
   rect.setWidth(200);
   rect.setHeight(100);
   rect.setX(20.0f);
   rect.setY(20.0f);

Here is how I would love to be able to define it,

Rectangle rect = new Rectangle({
   fill: Color.RED,
   width: 200,
   height: 100,
   x: 20.0f,
   y: 20.0f
});

I believe I have been spoiled by my usage of Javascript, and I could use other VM languages, but I think this is just fun to look at. This inherently has issues, because there would need to be to be a lot of Type Casting in order to get the variables out or to set them accordingly, because the Map passed as the argument would need to be defined as HashMap<String, Object> to ensure any value could be passed. The implementation of the Rectangle class would then need to internally map these properties to the right variables somehow.

With Collection Literals in Java 8 onwards, this all will be possible, but the other issue would be if the various UI Classes like Rectangle would be refactored to make the above code possible. I highly doubt it personally, but nothing is impossible.

I will certainly play around with this a bit later. Feel free to share your own ideas in the comments below.

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