Release 1.8.6 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, and the Eclipse plugin for the Checker Framework.

 * The Type Annotations compiler supports type annotation syntax.

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

   in order to detect and prevent bugs in your code.

 * 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

Method Reference and Lambda Expression Support:

The Checker Framework now supports type-checking method references

and lambda expressions to ensure they are congruent with the

functional interface they are assigned to. The bodies of lambda expressions

are also now type-checked similarly to regular method bodies.

Dataflow:

 * Handling of the following language features has been improved:

   boxed Booleans, finally blocks, switch statements, type casts, enhanced

   for loops

 * Performance improvements

Annotations:

The checker-compat-qual.jar is now included with the Checker Framework

release.  It can also be found in Maven Central at the coordinates:

org.checkerframework:checker-compat-qual

Annotations in checker-compat-qual.jar do not require Java 8 but

can only be placed in annotation locations valid in Java 7

Changes to the Type Annotations Compiler

jsr308-langtools is now based on jdk8u-dev: the type-annotations

repository was closed and jdk9 is starting to use Java 8 features,

which prevents us from building on jdk7.

Base build

  Updated to OpenJDK jdk8u-dev/langtools as of 22 Sep 2014.