Preload attribute

[John Rose]

On 8 Jun 2023, at 9:01, Dan Heidinga wrote:

> If we decouple the list of preloadable classes from the classfile, how
> would non-jdk classes be handled?> What if instead of ditching the attribute, or treating it like an
> optimization, we firmed up the contract and treated it as a guarantee…

If we go down this route, let’s consider putting the control information into a module file (only) for starters.  (Maybe class file later if needed.)  There would be fewer states to document and test, since (by definition) class files could not get out of sync.

A module would document, in one mplace, which types it would “prefer” to preload in order to optimize its APIs (internal or external).