corba, jaxp and jaxws compiled before jdk repository

[Alan Bateman]

In the discussion on build-dev about boot cycle builds then Andrew 
Hughes mentioned the problem with the old build system where jaxp, jaxws 
and corba are compiled before the jdk repo and this can lead to several 
problems. I had assumed this would not be an issue with the new build 
but now I'm not sure.

As a test for something that we may need to do in JDK8, I added an 
interface to java.util.spi (jdk repository) and then attempted to 
implement that interface in a class in the jaxp repository. This is a 
good example of code in jaxp needing to make use of something that is 
new in jdk8. On re-build the compile of the jaxp repository failed 
because the new class is not known to the bootstrap JDK (and the 
jdk/classes directory is not on the classpath specific to javac).

Are corba, jaxp and jaxws compiled before jdk just to follow the old 
build system? Given circular dependencies between these repositories 
then has there been any consideration given to compiling them together?  
(I'm ignoring hotspot for now, I realize that SA and JDI are issues too).

-Alan