New candidate JEP: 493: Linking Run-Time Images without JMODs

[Alex Buckley]

On 10/22/2024 12:09 PM, Severin Gehwolf wrote:
> On Tue, 2024-10-22 at 10:28 -0700, Alex Buckley wrote:
>>> Every jlink in every JDK build can consume JMOD files.
>>
>> It would be helpful to state this. And then: "In addition, in some JDK
>> installations, jlink can consume modules from the run-time image of
>> which it is part. Whether jlink can do this depends on how its run-time
>> image was built."
> 
> OK.

Thanks. Making basic statements about what jlink does is important 
because many readers are coming in cold. For example, they might be 
arriving from the top story on 
https://www.infoworld.com/software-development/ on October 22 2024:

   * Java proposal would shrink JDK by 25% *

   Plan would reduce the size of the JDK by enabling the jlink tool to
   create custom run-time images without using the JDK’s JMOD files.

Most readers have never seen a JMOD file, but many will be aware that a 
modern JDK installation is comprised of modules, and a 25% drop in 
anything is worth reading about. If JEP 493 can spark the idea among 
readers that "Wow, there's a thing called jlink, which lets me make a 
smaller JDK from the JDK I already have!" then it's a success.

Alex