Why not get rid of versions?

[Paul Benedict]

Okay, I see. They get baked into the class file by the build tool. Well,
what if they weren't there at all? Every module system today already has
external metadata and it is more descriptive than starting it from scratch
in the JDK (see #StandardModuleAttributes). All I would ask if there could
be given some thought about this, especially if it has a chance to reduce
some complexity of the Module specification.
On Mar 23, 2016 7:57 PM, "Remi Forax" <forax at univ-mlv.fr> wrote:

> yes,
> module versions are just metadata, as you said they are not needed by the
> JDK,
> but jigsaw also wants to ease the interrop with module systems that does
> their resolution at runtime,
> so IMO the JDK has to provide a way to query the version of a module at
> runtime.
>
> Rémi
>
> ----- Mail original -----
> > De: "Paul Benedict" <pbenedict at apache.org>
> > À: "ML OpenJDK Jigsaw Developers" <jigsaw-dev at openjdk.java.net>
> > Envoyé: Jeudi 24 Mars 2016 01:45:41
> > Objet: Why not get rid of versions?
> >
> > Based on today's discussions, I've been thinking if there is any merit in
> > dumping the notion of Module Version altogether? I am beginning to think
> > it's completely irrelevant to the Module System.
> >
> > Versions are important during builds and for interacting with artifact
> > repositories, but once artifacts are resolved and installed into the JDK
> as
> > modules, versioning has no more utility. You don't even need Versions to
> > link modules together. The only thing that is actually needed is the
> Module
> > Name.
> >
> > It looks like to me versions are metadata that belong outside the JDK and
> > classfile format. I think a whole host of problems go away when the
> Version
> > goes away. The JDK isn't an artifact manager so it doesn't need versions.
> >
> > What do you think?
> >
>