Views on JSR 376 from the Eclipse JDT team

[mark.reinhold at oracle.com]

2017/5/6 14:27:27 -0700, mike.milinkovich at eclipse.org:
> Mark,
> 
> You are comparing apples to oranges. The Eclipse Compiler for Java is
> neither a tool, nor a framework.

A compiler is a particular kind of software-development tool, last
I checked.  An important one, certainly, but a tool nonetheless.

>                                  It is the other Java compiler. The
> one that needs to actually rely on the specification, as opposed to
> Oracle's implementation.

As I said in my nearby reply to Stephen, I very much appreciate that and
I hope that others do as well.  It's not clear to me, however, that its
role in that regard justifies a delay to the release.

> The whole purpose of the JCP is to enable independent implementations,
> such as ecj. If the specs don't do so, we might as well just disband
> the whole facade.
> 
> The Eclipse JDT team has worked extremely hard throughout the entire
> Java 9 development cycle to overcome incomplete and ambiguous
> specifications. Their efforts have made the spec much better than it
> would be otherwise.

I have no doubt of that, and I appreciate their efforts.

> I can appreciate the schedule and business pressures you're under,

I'm not under any business pressure to ship Java SE 9 by the current
scheduled date.  If there's a very strong reason to slip the release
then I will propose to slip the release, as I've always said -- and
done.

>                                                                    but
> your attempts to shift the blame for this situation to others are
> counter-productive.

I'm not trying to shift any blame anywhere.  I'm merely trying to
understand the view of the Eclipse JDT team, or the Eclipse Foundation
more generally, for which you speak.

So: Is it the view of the Eclipse Foundation that any release of the
Java SE Platform that changes the Java programming language must wait
until the maintainers of the Eclipse Compiler for Java are satisfied
with the draft Java Language Specification?

If not, then how would you characterize the conditions under which an
update to the JLS may be considered ready for release?

- Mark