JEPs proposed to target JDK 10 (2017/11/2)

[Volker Simonis]

Hi Mark,

DISCLAIMER: my comments are purely process related!

In a previous post you wrote that the mainline will always be feature
complete [1].

Looking at these JEPs, I wonder how we can ensure that? I know that the
proposed JEPs have been extensively discussed and (at least partially)
reviewed on the corresponding mailing list. Still, from looking at JBS
alone, it seems impossible to find out if one of the proposed JEPs is
feature complete and thus ready to be targeted for JDK 10.

For example the JBS entry forJEP 304 mentions 15 issues it relates to. Five
of these issues have already been fixed and integrated (which seems strange
if the overall JEP hasn't even been targeted).

I think if we take you "increase the release cadence" proposal seriously,
such new JEPs should actually really be implemented in their own
repositories (or branches) with their own builds and tests. Only then we
could say (and prove) that a JEP is really ready for integration into the
main line. Of course such an approach is completely unrealistic with our
current setup.

Another problem I see is that scope of a JEP may vary from a single webrev
up to a douzen and more different issues but we currently treat them all in
the same way. If there's a vague feeling that a JEP is 'mostly'
implemented, we target it.

We really need something like lightweight branches with their own builds
and tests to effectively work in the proposed way.

Finall, I want to stress once again, that I don't want to criticize the
three proposed JEPs in any way. I fully support all of them and I think it
is good to have them in JDK 10. I just wonder if we can meet the high goals
you set when proposing the new release cadence with our current tools and
infrastructure.

Comments welcome ...

Regards,
Volker

[1] http://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk8/milestones#Feature_Complete

<mark.reinhold at oracle.com> schrieb am Fr. 3. Nov. 2017 um 01:37:

> The following JEPs have been placed into the "Proposed to Target" state
> by their owners after discussion and review:
>
>   304: Garbage-Collector Interface
>        http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/304
>
>   307: Parallel Full GC for G1
>        http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/307
>
>   312: Thread-Local Handshakes
>        http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/312
>
> Feedback on these proposals is more than welcome, as are reasoned
> objections.  If no such objections are raised by 23:00 UTC on Thursday,
> 9 November, or if they're raised and then satisfactorily answered, then
> per the JEP 2.0 process proposal [1] I'll target these JEPs to JDK 10.
>
> - Mark
>
>
> [1] http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~mr/jep/jep-2.0-02.html
>