JEP 110 HTTP client API

[Michael McMahon]

Hi,

I just want to confirm the plans for the HTTP client API in JDK 9 that 
were hinted at previously. There is a new feature called "incubator 
modules" which has just been proposed for JDK 9. The idea is to 
accommodate new APIs in JDK which are not quite ready to be standardized 
as part of Java SE. There is more information at the link below [1]. 
But, the main implications are:

- the API package namespace must be under jdk.incubator
- the API is not a standard part of the platform and is subject to 
change before being standardized in a future release of JDK.
- compile time and run time warnings are issued when using the feature.
- the feature is not visible by default but must be opted into with a 
command line option.

The plan is for the new httpclient API to be included with JDK 9 using 
this feature. Therefore, the package java.net.http will be renamed as 
jdk.incubator.http in JDK 9, and the implementation will reside in its 
own module also under the jdk.incubator namespace.

The aim is to gain experience with the API, and standardize it for JDK 
10 by moving it back from jdk.incubator.http to java.net.http together 
with any other API changes as a result of that experience.

Bug id 8169768 [2] has been filed to handle the change and the plan is 
to integrate the work that has been done in the sandbox forest using the 
JEP 11 guidelines, into jdk9 dev, by the end of this week. We will 
publish a webrev of the changes in the next day or two. I will update 
the JEP 110 description [3] to reflect these changes in the next day or two.

Thanks,

Michael.


[1] (Incubator modules JEP 11) 
https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8169768

[2] (bug to update JEP 110) https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8169768

[3] (JEP 110) https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8042950