Preferring class files to source files in ClassReader.java

[Jonathan Gibbons]

On 11/14/2013 04:03 AM, Joel Borggren-Franck wrote:
> Hi Jeremy,
>
> On 2013-11-13, Jeremy Manson wrote:
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> A bit of background:
>>
>> - We use a content-addressable storage around here, so to minimize the
>> diffs between two JAR files (and get more hits in our content-addressable
>> storage), we reset all timestamps in JAR files to the same values.
>> - Some of our users include both source and class files in their JAR files.
>> - When those users want to put those JAR files on the classpath for javac,
>> and use them to compile other files, they may not have included enough on
>> the classpath to compile the source files.
>> - We've worked around this by favoring classfiles when the two files are of
>> the same age.  This has the added benefit of not having to recompile the
>> source files when they are found.
>> - What do you think?  Too esoteric?  Wait for JDK9?
>>
> Thinking out loud here. While I do understand your usecase, don't we
> want the opposite to be the default case? If javac finds a source and a
> class file and the timestamps are suspect isn't the responsible thing to
> do to compile the source again?
>
> cheers
> /Joel

I think Jeremy would argue that the timestamps are not suspect -- they 
are exactly what they have set them to be!

-- Jon