Preserving API's when removing implementations

[Peter Firmstone]

One trend I am noticing as features are removed from Java, is that API 
that client code utilises is also removed, which prevents other 
implementations from replacing lost features, where the Java development 
community needs to continue supporting such features, it breaks software 
that would otherwise continue to function with an alternative 
implementation.

Can we do something about preserving parts of these API's perhaps as 
deprecated without their removal please?

Perhaps include the API's in a separate compatibility module, these 
shouldn't require further development and maintenance, they are just 
there for backward compatible evolution of client code.

Thank you.

-- 
Regards,
  
Peter Firmstone
Zeus Project Services Pty Ltd.