Why is -XD-Xmodule hidden?

[Alan Bateman]

On 11/06/2017 08:13, Nicolai Parlog wrote:
>   Hi!
>
> When incrementally compiling some of a module's sources it is necessary
> to make the compiler aware that the sources actually belong to that
> module. One way to do this was the non-standard option -Xmodule, which
> was recently demoted to the hidden -XD-Xmodule.
>
> I'm curious to know why.
>
> Example:
>
> 	javac --module-path mods -d classes
> 		src/foo.mod/com.example.SomeClass.java
>
> This will compile SomeClass in the unnamed module, making it fail if it
> uses types from bar.mod (even if foo.mod requires it).
>
> I know of three ways to fix this:
>
> * adding module declaration to compile command
> * multi-module declaration
> * option -XD-Xmodule
>
> I found the last option to be conceptually most fitting and also the
> least troublesome.
>
-Xmodule was folded into --patch-module some time ago. Just add 
`--patch-module foo.mod=src/foo.jmod` to the above.

I'll have to defer to Jon or Jan as to why -Xmodule wasn't removed. As I 
recall, it was made hidden to allow for transition but I thought that 
was temporary.

-Alan