I fell in the trap of Boolean.getBoolean()

I was struggling to find a bug in a very simple application, it ended up being something as simple as using the damned Boolean.getBoolean("true") call instead of Boolean.valueOf("true").booleanValue() call.

The Boolean.getBoolean method is something you almost never need to use, as it checks if a particular system property is true or false. There is a similar method for Integer.getInteger, and a quick google search shows I am not the only one to think those method should never have been part of the basic API for Boolean/Integer. It is too easy to confuse with parseBoolean/parseInt, especially as parseBoolean does not exist in JDKs prior to JDK 1.5 (parseInt is older).

I can not imagine the improductivity this method has produced given its part of one of the most used class in the world.

I fell in the trap of Boolean.getBoolean()

I was struggling to find a bug in a very simple application, it ended up being something as simple as using the damned Boolean.getBoolean("true") call instead of Boolean.valueOf("true").booleanValue() call.

The Boolean.getBoolean method is something you almost never need to use, as it checks if a particular system property is true or false. There is a similar method for Integer.getInteger, and a quick google search shows I am not the only one to think those method should never have been part of the basic API for Boolean/Integer. It is too easy to confuse with parseBoolean/parseInt, especially as parseBoolean does not exist in JDKs prior to JDK 1.5 (parseInt is older).

I can not imagine the improductivity this method has produced given its part of one of the most used class in the world.