Name: skR10005 Date: 06/11/2003


The API specification of methods ThreadGroup.activeCount and
ThreadGroup.activeGroupCount contain the word "estimate" which should be
explained.

According to explanation of jdk developers
  "these methods are ill-specified"
but API users may expect some definite behaviour.
The same concerns Thread.activeCount method.

I agree with Jonathan Gibbons opinion that
  "If we are not formally deprecating these methods, would it not be worth
   amending the spec to point out the faults and to recommend against their
   usage. Otherwise, there will continue to be questions like this from
   people trying to use them."

At the same time API spec for all ThreadGroup enumerate methods read
  "An application should use the activeCount method to get an estimate of
   how big the array should be."

These asserion should be corrected too.
Moreover according to explanation of jdk developers
  "This method is known not to work properly due to the (obvious) race
   condition: the number of threads can grow or shrink in between the two
   calls. This problem has been known since '95 (or so). It is disccussed
   in Item 52 of "Effective Java" among other places."
   
I think that this clarification should be added to API spec too.

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