Release 1.8.0 of the Checker Framework and Type Annotations Compiler

[Jonathan Burke]

We have released a new version of the Type Annotations (JSR 308) compiler,

the Checker Framework, Annotation File Utilities, and the Eclipse plugin for the Checker Framework.

 * The Type Annotations compiler supports the type annotation syntax that is

   planned for a future version of the Java language.

 * The Checker Framework lets you create and/or run pluggable type-checkers,

   in order to detect and prevent bugs in your code.  

 *  The Annotation File Utilities extract annotations from, and write annotations 

   to, .java and .class files. 

 * The Eclipse plugin makes it more convenient to run the Checker Framework.

You can find documentation and download links for these projects at:

http://types.cs.washington.edu/jsr308/

Changes to the Checker Framework

Restructure the Checker Framework project and package layout, using the org.checkerframework prefix.

Added the GUI Effect Checker, which prevents "invalid thread access" errors when a background thread in a GUI attempts to access the UI.

Fixes for issues 308 and 309.

Changes to the Type Annotations Compiler

Updated to OpenJDK 9 dev/langtools and type-annotations/langtoolsas of 25 Mar 2014.

Changes to the Annotation File Utilities

Eliminates insert-annotation problems with handling Java 8 class files.

Corrects annotation placement within a qualified type name.

Fills in gaps in AST Path API. All (Java 7) non-declaration nodes can now be identified by a path from an enclosing declaration.

Expands scene-lib API with visitor framework and new class APIIndex, which provides a cache that maps Java abstract syntax tree nodes to AST paths as defined in the annotation file format specification.