[7u10] Request for approval: 7166055: Javadoc for WeakHashMap contains misleading advice

[Artem Ananiev]

(Adding conformance-discuss to CC)

On 9/17/2012 2:11 PM, Alan Bateman wrote:
> On 17/09/2012 11:01, Artem Ananiev wrote:
>>
>> JavaDoc changes, even trivial corrections and clarifications, are
>> potential compatibility issues. Previously unverifiable statement can
>> become verifiable, and vice versa. We don't (can't!) change
>> compatibility tests in update releases, therefore we can't accept any
>> specification changes.
> The discussion here relates to changes to non-normative text rather than
> a specification change. I don't think it matters too much if such
> changes are back-ported except that it might be a bit confusing to have
> a mismatch between the source code and the docs on java.sun.com (or
> docs.orcale.com nowadays).

The difference between "non-normative text" and "specification" is often 
too subtle, and people may have different opinion what is what. I 
personally don't have any better ideas than to prohibit any spec changes 
in update releases, but I don't want to pretend to be a compatibility 
expert.

Thanks,

Artem

> -Alan