Is final ill-defined?

Question

First, a puzzle: What does the following code print?

public class RecursiveStatic {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println(scale         


        

Answer 1

Reading an uninitialized field of an object ought to result in a compilation error. Unfortunately for Java, it does not.

I think the fundamental reason why this is the case is "hidden" deep within the definition of how objects are instantiated and constructed, though I don't know the details of the standard.

In a sense, final is ill-defined because it doesn't even accomplish what its stated purpose is due to this problem. However, if all your classes are properly written, you don't have this problem. Meaning all fields are always set in all constructors and no object is ever created without calling one of its constructors. That seems natural until you have to use a serialization library.