Groovy: Implicit call not working on instance variables inside closure - groovy

Question

A class implements call method so that it's objects can be called as a method. This works for most of the case but not when the call is being made inside a closure on a object which is instance variable of a class.
To demonstrate the problem, in the code below I've commented the interesting lines with numbers. While most variants result in same output, only the line with comment 5 doesn't work. It throws groovy.lang.MissingMethodException: No signature of method: Client2.instanceVar() is applicable for argument types: () values: [])
Can someone help me understand the reason? Is it a bug?
class CallableObject {
def call() { println "hello" }
}
class Client {
def instanceVar = new CallableObject()
def method() {
def localVar = new CallableObject()
def closure1 = { localVar() }
def closure2 = { instanceVar.call() }
def closure3 = { instanceVar() } // doesn't work
localVar() // 1
instanceVar() // 2
closure1() // 3
closure2() // 4
closure3() // 5
}
}
new Client().method()

Answer 1

I guess this will make it clear.
class CallableObject {
def call() { println "hello" }
}
class Client {
def instanceVar = new CallableObject()
def getInstanceVar() {
println "Getter Called"
instanceVar
}
def method() {
def localVar = new CallableObject()
def closure1 = { localVar() }
def closure2 = { instanceVar.call() }
def closure3 = { this.#instanceVar() } //should work now
localVar() // 1
instanceVar() // 2
closure1() // 3
closure2() // 4
closure3() // 5
}
}
new Client().method()
You will see "Getter Called" printed when closure2() invoked. For a global property to be accessed in the closure inside a method, the getter in called instead. To surmount the error you get, the field instanceVar needs to be accessed directly in order to implicitly use call().