module/bootclass troubles with jdk9

[Jonathan Gibbons]

On 02/03/2015 12:17 AM, Alan Bateman wrote:
>
> For javac then there are other ideas to support compiling for previous 
> releases, Jon might want to say more on this.
>
> -Alan 

javac is currently in "interim land".  For now, javac still supports the 
bootclasspath family of options, meaning that if you have an rt.jar you 
want to use, you can.  If you don't specify any platform classes, the 
default is to use the classes in the jrt: image.

Going forward, the expectation is that javac will support the JDK 8 set 
of javac path-related options in conjunction with -target N, N <= 8.  In 
addition, the following JEP (currently in Draft state) will explore 
providing a new option -platform N, which will be informally equivalent 
to -source N -target N -bootclasspath jdkN/jre/lib/rt.jar
http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/8058150

And, we are working on full support for modules in JDK 9 javac, for use 
with -target N, N >= 9.

-- Jon