The following code causes a NullPointerException in the compiler. The critical
line is the attempt to assign a length to the array. This should generate a compiler
error -- the exception gives no help in finding the illegal construct.

class t {
    void foo() {
        int[] a = new int[10];
        int i = a.length;
        a.length = 12;
    }
}

Here is the stack trace:

java.lang.NullPointerException
        at sun.tools.tree.FieldExpression.inlineLHS(FieldExpression.java:317)
        at sun.tools.tree.BinaryAssignExpression.inlineValue(BinaryAssignExpression.java:62)
        at sun.tools.tree.BinaryAssignExpression.inline(BinaryAssignExpression.java:59)
        at sun.tools.tree.ExpressionStatement.inline(ExpressionStatement.java:51)
        at sun.tools.tree.CompoundStatement.inline(CompoundStatement.java:65)
        at sun.tools.javac.SourceField.inline(SourceField.java:293)
        at sun.tools.javac.SourceField.code(SourceField.java:367)
        at sun.tools.javac.SourceClass.compileClass(SourceClass.java:564)
        at sun.tools.javac.SourceClass.compile(SourceClass.java:527)
        at sun.tools.javac.Main.compile(Main.java:193)
        at sun.tools.javac.Main.main(Main.java:289)
error: An exception has occurred in the compiler; please file a bug report (###@###.###).

I suppose I'm not surprised that the only read-only field in the universe is
handled differently.

[mchan 4/30/96]
Customer from BEA Systems is encountering the same bug. Apparently, the bug still
exists on Java 1.0.1.


I know the following Java program is invalid, but it should generate
an error instead of the NullPointerException.

I am using Java 1.0 on Solaris 2.5 with SS5. The same bug exists on
Java 1.0.1.

class V
{
        public static void main( String args[] )
        {
                args.length = 5;
        }
}

java.lang.NullPointerException
        at sun.tools.tree.FieldExpression.inlineLHS(FieldExpression.java:317)
        at sun.tools.tree.BinaryAssignExpression.inlineValue(BinaryAssignExpression.java:62)
        at sun.tools.tree.BinaryAssignExpression.inline(BinaryAssignExpression.java:59)
        at sun.tools.tree.ExpressionStatement.inline(ExpressionStatement.java:51)
        at sun.tools.tree.CompoundStatement.inline(CompoundStatement.java:65)
        at sun.tools.javac.SourceField.inline(SourceField.java:293)
        at sun.tools.javac.SourceField.code(SourceField.java:367)
        at sun.tools.javac.SourceClass.compileClass(SourceClass.java:564)
        at sun.tools.javac.SourceClass.compile(SourceClass.java:527)
        at sun.tools.javac.Main.compile(Main.java:193)
        at sun.tools.javac.Main.main(Main.java:289)
error: An exception has occurred in the compiler; please file a bug report (###@###.###).
1 error
*** Error code 1