RFC: JDK 9 Sandbox Forest Proposal

Doug Simon doug.simon at oracle.com
Sun Sep 21 19:19:28 UTC 2014


On Sep 19, 2014, at 7:15 PM, Mike Duigou <mike.duigou at oracle.com> wrote:

> Hello all;
> 
> I've been instigating internal discussions with the Oracle OpenJDK developers about where to do OpenJDK development work for JEP-scale efforts. The scope, duration, and necessary collaboration of JEP-scale efforts makes it appropriate for collaboration to be done using an open, shared version control system rather than just using privately shared patches. As incubation development work it is not appropriate though for this work to be hosted in the jdk9/dev main-line repos. We need a public place to collaborate on issues and features before they are ready for final integration into the main-line JDK repos.
> 
> It is possible for any OpenJDK developer to request a new OpenJDK project, but the OpenJDK project process seems entirely too heavy-weight to have full OpenJDK projects and/or forests for every issue, feature, exploration or prototype. The problem is both the creation process overhead for new projects as well as the various ongoing administration and maintenance issues attendant with ongoing projects. For larger efforts it is still entirely appropriate to create an OpenJDK project. An extremely rough guide is that if the result of an effort will be a new JDK module or API package then it is probably big enough to deserve a separate project. For everything smaller, shorter or more speculative than is appropriate for a project this new sandbox forest will provide a comfortable home.
> 
> This proposal has been through a few rounds of internal review and refinement and I believe is nearly ready for activation. Ideally the new sandbox forest would be available for use in early October.
> 
> Feedback and suggestions welcome.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Mike
> 
> 
> Proposal:
> 
> - Create a new forest in the JDK 9 project for developers to use for experiments, new features, prototypes or any other non-trivial efforts. 
> 
> 
> Goals: 
> 
> - Open          : Use OpenJDK public infrastructure
> - Low-friction  : Minimal start-cost and no delays
> - Collaboration : Individual efforts can self-organize and self-regulate
> - Approachable  : Community members can easily locate, review, comment and participate

Towards the goal of easier reviewing, are there any plans for adopting a code review tool (such as Crucible) as part of this proposal?

-Doug


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