Cannot instatiate class nested in enclosing abstract class

This doesn't seem to be a problem with abstract classes, but with the handling of Float which is already defined as a constant. Here's a sample program:

package org.bug;

public /* abstract */ class JRuby425
{
    public static class Float {}
    public static class Sink {}
}

I have abstract commented out for the enclosing class above, but in practice it makes no difference whether it is there or not:

irb(main):001:0> require 'java'
=> true
irb(main):002:0> jruby425 = org.bug.JRuby425
=> #<Class:01x9cbfa1>
irb(main):003:0> jruby425::Float.new
(irb):1 warning: toplevel constant Float referenced by #<Class:01x9cbfa1>::Float
NoMethodError: undefined method `new' for Float:Class
        from (irb):1:in `method_missing'
        from (irb):1:in `binding'
irb(main):004:0> jruby425::Sink.new
=> #<JavaUtilities::null::Sink:0x68fede @java_object=org.bug.JRuby425$Sink@990a46>
irb(main):005:0> 

Note that we can instantiate Sink without a problem, regardless of whether the enclosing class is abstract or not.

A little more examination:

The inner class high-level Java support is largely based on const_missing. The object proxying the outer Java class JRuby425 has a class hierarchy that looks like:

(some singleton class) < ConcreteJavaProxy < JavaProxy < Object

The constant lookup logic in RubyModule.getConstantInner() traverses this hierarchy looking for Float. None of the first three members of the hierarchy has Float, but Object does. There's logic that specifically checks for conditions like this (finding a toplevel constant when you asked for it in the context of a specific module) and you'll get that warning message above, but the end result is that const_missing is never called on the JRuby425 proxy since the constant was found in its class hierarchy.

I'll try to look at this more after work to see if there's a good way of getting around or patching this problem...

The attached patch works around this problem by reflecting on declared classes up front instead of setting up a const_missing method.

Thanks, Miguel.