I know one isn't supposed to rely on files being
closed by themselves.

But, RandomAccessFile should have a finalize()
method which closes the file descriptor, the same
way that FileOutputStream and friends do.
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As the submitter seems to realize, finalization is not a reliable way to close
open files.  At best it is a flaky method of last resort that shouldn't be
relied upon.  Files should be opened within try/finally blocks that take care
to ensure that they are closed.  Having said that, adding a finalize() method
to RandomAccessFile is something to consider for the next feature release.

--   xxxxx@xxxxx   10/6/1997

In light of 4099999, I'm not going to do this.  Using a finalizer to close an
open file is just a bad idea, especially since it closes the underlying
FileDescriptor, which may be in use by some other stream.

--   xxxxx@xxxxx   1/7/1998

There is yet another reason not to add a finalize() method to RandomAccessFile:
It would impose a significant performance penalty upon programs that need to
open many files quickly.  The File{In,Out}putStream classes, which do have
finalizers, are unusable by such programs due to the strain that they place
upon the garbage collector.  If we add a finalizer to RandomAccessFile then we
will adversely affect the performance of existing programs which rely upon the
fact that RandomAccessFile has no finalizer.

--   xxxxx@xxxxx   2003/2/11