Zlib level in JDK7

[Steve Poole]

On Thu, 2011-02-17 at 10:20 +0000, Alan Bateman wrote:
> Steve Poole wrote:
> > :
> > What sort of testing did you have in mind?   You mean run the zlib tests
> > and/or OpenJDK testcases?
> >   
> To be honest, I don't know. The zip tests should clearly be run but they 
> are unlikely to stress the zip code in the same way that the IDEs, app 
> servers, and other big applications do. 

Running zlibs own tests is unlikely to be too helpful. I'd be quite
happy to run any JDK tests you have and there are also testcases in
Apache Harmony for the related Java APIs.  I'm curious to understand
just what level of testing is already done though?   

> If there is a compelling reason 
> to do another zlib update in 7 then I would suggest running as many of 
> these as you can to increase the confidence that there won't be an 
> issues. 

I think this is simply about currency.  Getting fixes from other
projects usually has a list of drag-alongs.   So the closer you can keep
to their latest production level the smaller that list is , and
consequently the lower the risk is,  when you need a specific fix
later.  


> If this is too much work then it might be better to just prepare 
> the patch to go in once jdk8 opens for business.
> 
Agreed - I can imagine why zlib was embedded originally but I can't see
why that should continue. It seem that the right direction is to remove
the embedded code and rely on the platform providing the support. 

> -Alan.



Steve