Repeating Annotations and backwards compatibility

[Alex Buckley]

On 9/13/2012 2:06 PM, Paul Benedict wrote:
> I thought you were saying that *legacy* container annotations are ONLY
> for *legacy* annotations. If a futuristic JPA 3, for example, introduced
> a new repeating annotation, it should be unnecessary to also spec out a
> new container annotation too. Are you really saying container
> annotations are necessary forever?

The price of behavioral compatibility for legacy consumers of legacy 
ClassFiles (which must continue to work for ever mre) is the 
containerization of repeating annotations for ever. Useful new 
reflection methods make this a non-issue for new consumers of repeatable 
annotation types; such consumers may write and reflect repeating 
annotations with very little interest in the container behind the curtain.

Alex