Re: this reference in Java constructors

It's fairly easy to get an arbitrary
amount of code executed *before* the superclass' constructor
runs, as in

    class Counterexample extends HasBoolConstructor {
        Counterexample() {
            super(boolMethod());
        }

        private bool boolMethod() {
            // Twelve SQL queries,
            // Eleven XML parses,
            // Ten external programs,
            // Nine RMI calls,
            // Eight LDAP queries,
            // Seven serializations,
            // Six caught exceptions,
            // Five di-a-logs!
            // Four URLs,
            // Three GC's,
            // Two JAR downloads, and
            return pearTree.add("Partridge");
        }

        private static final HashSet<String> pearTree =
            new HashSet<String>();
    }