Need help testing the EA builds

[Alan Bateman]

We are starting to think through how to bring the module system that is 
the monster patch in jigsaw/jake forest into the JDK 9 main line.

There are many reasons to do this. One reason is to reduce testing 
effort. Another is to reduce the cost of sync ups as it takes a lot of 
effort each week to merge in the changes from JDK 9. We also have 
confused some developers by having two early access (EA) builds, one EA 
build with Project Jigsaw, the other without. It should also be obvious 
that time is moving on and we don't want to be rushing things right 
before JDK 9 Feature Complete.

Merging into the JDK 9 main line will be a big step and there are many 
things that need to be done to make this happen. The proposal will most 
likely be to take snapshot of what we have in jake and bring it into JDK 
9 after stabilization, testing and of course review. Once it is in JDK 9 
then we'll continue to iterate and work through the many issues that 
need attention.

One thing that would be useful is to get as many people as possible to 
try out the EA builds [1]. It really helps confidence when there is 
confirmation that existing libraries and applications work as before. If 
there are bugs or issues that involve any of the supported interfaces 
then we want to know. We know well that there are several compatibility 
issues and we've attempted to capture those in the Risks and Assumption 
section of JEP 261 [2].

We also interested in bug reports and issues from those trying out the 
EA builds to create their own modules or migrating existing code or 
libraries to modules. Bonus points for those brave enough to try out 
some of the many new APIs too.

-Alan

[1] https://jdk9.java.net/jigsaw/
[2] http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/261