Ability to import static non-existent members

This is something that the compiler should be checking, but isn't. Compiling this on the command line does not give any errors. There might be something that we could do to augment the compilation (as we do with unused imports), but it may be outside the scope of our compiler integration.

I'm not sure if this should be an error, but it should at least be underlined in the editor. Is that possible?

Should I file a Groovy bug?

Yes, this does look like a compiler error. The compiler should warn about an unknown import, but this script completes for me with no errors:

import static java.lang.Math.FOO

println "done."

Okay, created https://jira.codehaus.org/browse/GROOVY-5218

The more I think about this issue, the more I think that what groovyc is doing is actually correct. This is mainly due to the ability to perform dynamic metaprogramming on statics. For example, the following is valid groovy:

Math.metaClass.static.getFOO = {-> 1 }
java.lang.Math.FOO

If the above seems logical, then perhaps the editor should underline the unknown reference. This would make spotting these unknown references a lot easier when enums, constants, static methods etc. are renamed.

Looks like https://jira.codehaus.org/browse/GROOVY-5218 is valid groovy code. Thoughts?

My first inclination is to say, "just don't do it". But, that's probably not satisfying.

A complete solution would be to underline statically non-existant imports, and then let users augment this functionality through DSLDs. I'd even say that it is reasonable to do the underlining now, and just not have any support for augmentation via DSLDs for now, since this seems like a rare occurrence.

That makes sense to me

Okay, just an update from the Groovy JIRA: "Note: Groovy does not check beyond your import class if what you statically import exists. If you import a nonexisting method, field or property Groovy will not fail at compile time, but later when executing the compiled code."

Made some big changes to how static imports are handled. I committed a fix for this.

As I mentioned, the correct thing to do is underline unknown references and let the DSLD determine if they should otherwise be valid.

Awesome work Andrew. A great improvement to GRECLIPSE!