FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
J2SDK 1.4.0beta3 documentation


FULL OPERATING SYSTEM VERSION : irrelevant



A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
The class-use pages no longer list methods whose return
type is the indexed class or interface, or methods that
take the parameters of the indexed class or interface.

This sounds like a Javadoc bug.  However, if this was
an intentional change, please note how useful those
method cross-references were:

You could use the class-use page to find out how to get
an instance of a class or interface (especially when
you can't construct one), and you could find out what
you can do with it besides calling its own methods.

Note how the change makes the class-use pages almost
useless:  They now seem to contain only subclass
information, which is already available from the
overview-tree.html page.

For one example, method
javax.net.ssl.HandshakeCompletedEvent.getSocket()
returns type javax.net.ssl.SSLSocket, but the class-use
page at .../api/javax/ssl/net/class-use/SSLSocket.html
in the documentation bundle (as of 2001-12-14, also at
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4/docs/api/javax/net/ssl/class-use/SSLSocket.html)
says "No usage of javax.net.ssl.SSLSocket".

Similarly, method
javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory.createSocket(...)
returns type Socket, but the class-use page at
.../api/java/net/class-use/Socket.html in the
documentation bundle (as of 2001-12-14, also at
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4/docs/api/java/net/class-use/Socket.html)
only mentions SSLSocket as a subclass use of Socket,
but lists no methods that return Socket.


PLEASE fix this bug or restore the feature.  The method
references are ESSENTIAL for tracing relationships
between classes and for finding out how to get instances
and what all you can do with them.


(Also, please make sure the J2EE release team knows about
Javadoc's -use option and please try to get them to use it.
I've requested it several times but the message never
seemed to get through.)


DSB/DSB

REGRESSION.  Last worked in version 1.3.1

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
See documentation files or URLs listed in Description
field above.

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
The class-use page for a class or interface used to include
methods whose return type was the indexed class or
interface, and methods that took parameters of the indexed
class or interface.

Now such pages don't.






This bug can be reproduced always.
(Review ID: 137408) 
======================================================================

N/A

I confirm his example with SSSocket.html.  Perhaps a better example is one
where you can see the difference between 1.3 and 1.4:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/api/java/lang/class-use/Character.html
  which cites two methods that use Character
vs.
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4/docs/api/java/lang/class-use/Character.html
  which is empty
  xxxxx@xxxxx   2001-12-18

This bug is related to, and may be a duplicate of:
   4496290  REGRESSION: -use is severely broken
  xxxxx@xxxxx   2002-03-09