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Bug 158116

Summary:	Misleading compiler error for non-public classes
Product:	java	Reporter:	_ gtzabari <gtzabari>
Component:	Source	Assignee:	Svata Dedic <sdedic>
Status:	NEW ---
Severity:	blocker
Priority:	P4
Version:	6.x
Hardware:	All
OS:	All
Issue Type:	ENHANCEMENT	Exception Reporter:

Description _ gtzabari 2009-02-07 04:18:34 UTC

When a user references a non-public class from the editor Netbeans gives misleading messages about being unable to
resolve class name. The only way I discovered that the problem was the class accessibility was to manually type "import
<ClassName>" by hand (because Fix Imports refused to work silently) and only then did Netbeans give me a clean error
message.

This is a usability problem because from a compiler point of view the symbol is unresolved, yet from a user's point of
view "Fix Imports" refuses to work no matter what you do. Hitting SHIFT+ALT+I doesn't help either. It comes up with "No
classes found". Again, this is misleading. Netbeans should do a better job at communicating to the user that the class
name could be resolved but it could not be imported because it's non-public. Perhaps hitting SHIFT+ALT+I a second time
should show non-public matches crossed out (much like hitting CTRL+SPACE twice shows all matches).

Comment 1 Jiri Prox 2009-02-11 13:06:15 UTC

reproducible

when CoS is disabled the error message is ok.

Comment 2 Rastislav Komara 2009-02-16 09:50:28 UTC

Comment 3 Jan Lahoda 2009-08-20 09:58:24 UTC

Reassigning all moonko's java/source bugs to myself.

Comment 4 David Strupl 2012-10-25 13:41:41 UTC

Bug prior to 7.0, not touched for the last 2 years --> P4.

Comment 5 _ gtzabari 2012-10-26 21:13:26 UTC

Target Milestone is wrong (6.8 has already been released).