New proposal for #ReflectiveAccessToNonExportedTypes: Open modules & open packages

[Alan Snyder]

A somewhat peripheral comment on:
> To ensure the integrity of the platform we expect that all the modules of
> the JDK itself will be normal modules and that very few, if any, packages
> will be opened.
I’m wondering if it would be possible to open the package(s) used by Swing Look and Feels, to better support custom look and feels.

The most obvious candidates are the packages containing the Portable Look and Feel. The PLAF design is somewhat schizophrenic. It is clearly designed for reuse, yet it has encapsulations that sometimes get in the way of reuse. (You can see examples in the Aqua LAF, originally coded by Apple, where there are workarounds with comments like “bad Sun”.)

Other candidates are AWT support packages, which I have found useful in implementing a custom platform-specific look and feel.

The basic issue for my look and feel is whether I will need to include instructions for developers on special command line arguments to allow the code to run in JDK 9. Obviously, I would rather not have to do this.

What is not clear to me is whether the goal of protecting the integrity of the platform is layered in some way, with some parts of the platform more critical than others.

  Alan










> On Oct 27, 2016, at 9:07 AM, mark.reinhold at oracle.com wrote:
> 
> Thanks to everyone who commented on the weak-modules proposal.  I've
> just posted a third proposal for #ReflectiveAccessToNonExportedTypes,
> along with an analysis of the proposals presented thus far:
> 
>  http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/jpms-spec-experts/2016-October/000430.html
>  http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/jpms-spec-experts/2016-October/000431.html
> 
> Further comments most welcome, as usual!
> 
> - Mark