New informational JEP: 14: The Tip & Tail Model of Library Development

[Karsten Silz]

> On 22 Oct 2024, at 21:30, Alex Buckley wrote:
> >  On 10/22/2024 11:42 AM, Karsten Silz wrote:
>> Non-LTS Java versions get patch releases, too, such as 19.0.1 or 22.0.2 – see https://www.java.com/releases/matrix <https://www.java.com/ releases/matrix>. These are tip releases.
> 
> Every tip release of the JDK (e.g., "19") has a tail train forked from it.

Thank you for the swift reply! I'm afraid I find the JEP confusing about tail trains now.

First, the JEP says this: "A selection of older JDK versions -- 8, 11, 17, and 21 -- are maintained in tail trains." I interpreted that as "Only these older JDK versions have tail trains."  I think the JEP could have mentioned that all OpenJDK versions have had tail trains since Java 13. Especially since it mentions OpenJDK and Spring Boot as examples of "Tip & Tail" but depicts neither of those.

Second, the JEP also says this: "From time to time, library developers designate a tip release as the start of a new tail train that they will continue update even after new tip releases are made. " To me, the "From time to time" suggests again that not every tip release spawns a tail release. So, a sentence like this would be helpful for me in the JEP: "Although not all tip releases have to create a tail release, they do for OpenJDK and Spring Boot today." 

And then there's this: "a new tail train that they will continue update even after new tip releases are made". This was in the "Tip & Tail" description, so I read it as a definition: "All tail trains must get updates after the next tip release". Non-LTS OpenJDK tail trains don't today. So, a tail train getting updates after the next tip release is a recommendation, not a requirement?


Regards,
Karsten Silz
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