Name: ###@###.### Date: 09/05/96

the compiler does not consider an expression which is access
             to a static field via an object represented by a method invokation
             as a variable. It considers such expression as producing a value.

Tests: compilation of the following test:

class list
{
static int cnt;

public list next;

list getNext()
{
return next;
}

list(list tail)
{
next = tail;
}
}

public class test
{
public static list getNext(list l)
{
return l.getNext();
}

public static void main(String argv[])
{
list x, y = new list(null);

y.cnt++;
x = new list(y);
System.out.println(getNext(x).cnt);
getNext(x).cnt++;
}
}

breaks down the compiler. The produced output looks like this:

novo40% javac test.java
sun.tools.java.CompilerError: invalid lhs
at sun.tools.tree.Expression.codeLValue(Expression.java:250)
at sun.tools.tree.IncDecExpression.codeIncDec(IncDecExpression.java:87)
at sun.tools.tree.PostIncExpression.code(PostIncExpression.java:41)
at sun.tools.tree.ExpressionStatement.code(ExpressionStatement.java:77)
at sun.tools.tree.CompoundStatement.code(CompoundStatement.java:137)
at sun.tools.javac.SourceField.code(SourceField.java:406)
at sun.tools.javac.SourceField.code(SourceField.java:368)
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)
(, (method getNext x#-300261856) (<empty>.cnt))test.java:0: class test:void main(java.lang.String[])@sun.tools.java.CompilerError: invalid lhs
class list
^
1 error

======================================================================