POC: JDK ClassModel -> ASM ClassReader

[Ben Evans]

On Mon, Jul 18, 2022 at 10:31 PM Paul Sandoz <paul.sandoz at oracle.com> wrote:
>
> Fair point. How might you envisage the future of ASM? some stripped down version with integration hooks into the classfile API?

If this approach was adopted by the ASM folks it would potentially
remove a barrier to adoption of non-LTS JDK versions in production.

Specifically, it removes the risk of being stuck on an orphaned JDK
version because the current JDK version is not supported by the ASM
version that one of your key dependencies is pinned to.

If ASM becomes a wrapper & value-add over the JDK Classfile API then
"maximum supported JDK version" is a property solely of the JDK, not
of the ASM library, and so is no longer a barrier to upgrading the
JDK.

I'm sure it's not the not only barrier to getting more people to use
non-LTS in production, but based on what I saw at New Relic (where
customers raised this issue, or its consequences, fairly regularly) I
think it could be a significant one.

Thanks,

Ben