Updating JDK libraries to use Project Coin features

[Joe Darcy]

On 12/16/2010 8:57 AM, Neil Richards wrote:
> On 15 December 2010 01:34, Joe Darcy<joe.darcy at oracle.com>  wrote:
>> Greetings.
>>
>> The JDK 7 build has been using -source 7 for some time, but to date use of
>> new language features has been informal and incidental.  Supporting Project
>> Coin and JSR 334, Stuart Marks will be leading a "minting" exercise over the
>> JDK code base to systematically update the JDK libraries to take advantage
>> of the Project Coin language features. Efforts will be focused on the src
>> and test portions of the jdk repository of the JDK 7 forest. [1]  The first
>> features to be rolled into the code will be diamond and strings in switch.
> It would be really great if the compiler code remains able to be built
> using a Java 6 bootstrap.
> (So that everyone's build environment doesn't become reliant on
> pre-FCS quality code).

Yes, we plan to keep at least the javac portions of the langtools 
repository buildable with JDK 6 for just such bootstrapping reasons.  
For some time, we've had the constraint that javac in JDK (N+1) is 
buildable with JDK N, which precludes use of new language features and 
direct use of new libraries (reflection can be used for dynamic lookups 
of course).

-Joe