I'm looking at some open source Java projects to get into Java and notice a lot of them have some sort of 'constants' interface.
For instance, processing.org has an interface called PConstants.java, and most other core classes implement this interface. The interface is riddled with static members. Is there a reason for this approach, or is this considered bad practice? Why not use enums where it makes sense, or a static class?
I find it strange to use an interface to allow for some sort of pseudo 'global variables'.
public interface PConstants {
// LOTS OF static fields...
static public final int SHINE = 31;
// emissive (by default kept black)
static public final int ER = 32;
static public final int EG = 33;
static public final int EB = 34;
// has this vertex been lit yet
static public final int BEEN_LIT = 35;
static public final int VERTEX_FIELD_COUNT = 36;
// renderers known to processing.core
static final String P2D = "processing.core.PGraphics2D";
static final String P3D = "processing.core.PGraphics3D";
static final String JAVA2D = "processing.core.PGraphicsJava2D";
static final String OPENGL = "processing.opengl.PGraphicsOpenGL";
static final String PDF = "processing.pdf.PGraphicsPDF";
static final String DXF = "processing.dxf.RawDXF";
// platform IDs for PApplet.platform
static final int OTHER = 0;
static final int WINDOWS = 1;
static final int MACOSX = 2;
static final int LINUX = 3;
static final String[] platformNames = {
"other", "windows", "macosx", "linux"
};
// and on and on
}