main

[michael aron]

I always read that the main method must be defined as public static void... however I am able to compile and run programs with this method defined at any visibility level such as private. I am also able to declare my main method as final. Why is this the case, is it my JVM? What are the advantages and disadvantages of changing these?

[Val Dra]

It's a known bug , it's been documented by Sun

[ankush walia]

AND I THINK THIS BUG HAS BEEN REMOVED IN jdk1.3 PACKAGE!!
ankush!!

[Val Dra]

Nope still have it , i use jdk1.3 it's there

[venkatesan Rajagopalan]

yes it is true. By convention the main method should be public static in that order. as far as exam is concerned we should stick to the fact that the main method should be public static void main(String args[]){}
Correct me, if I am wrong.
regards
venkat

[Cindy Glass]

Yes you are correct. Even though Sun has an "undocumented feature" that recognizes main() without the coderanch, NEVER respond to an exam question with anything other than
public static void main()