History of using -parameters for JDK builds

[Alex Buckley]

On 1/28/2025 12:00 PM, Liam Miller-Cushon wrote:
> I was curious if there's been any discussion about enabling the feature 
> specifically when building the JDK itself? All of the general concerns 
> would apply there as well (class file size, compatibility surface).
> 
> I understand this isn't a small change, and am not making an argument 
> for doing it, but I'm curious if this has already been considered and 
> there's history on the lists I can read up on.

It was considered internally in the years leading up to Java 8. We 
considered the high utility to IDEs, the increased complexity of the 
build, the larger amount of "debug" information in the image (by some 
viewpoints), and the general lack of consistency of parameter names in 
JDK code. I don't really see anything that has changed in the ensuing 
decade+ that would cause a different decision today.

Alex