From Java Tutorial 98-2: Java Language and Object Oriented Techniques CPS606 Fall Semester 1999 -- Sept 7 1999. byGeoffrey C. Fox, Nancy McCracken
threadsafe: Instance or static variables will never change asynchronously and so can use compiler optimizations such as assigning to registers. Next modifier -- final -- is also valuable to compilers
final -- Cannot have a subclass for classes
cannot be overridden for methods
final variables have a constant value e.g.
final int ageatdeath = 101;
transient -- specifies that objects are not persistent
Note most of these modifiers can be used either for a class or an object -- a particular instance of a class
abstract only makes sense for a class and transient is perhaps more useful on an object basis