[jsr294-modularity-eg] Simple Module System Proposal

[Richard S. Hall]

On 9/24/09 20:16, Alex Buckley wrote:
> BJ Hargrave wrote:
>> > For the users I have in mind, multiple loaders and dynamism are edge
>> > cases, configurable through module-system-specific annotations.
>>
>> The set of users you have in mind is not interested in modularity. 
>> Just named and versions jar files which express dependencies on other 
>> named and versioned jar files. Having named and versioned jars files 
>> is fine and has proven useful to a large audience of maven users. But 
>> doing that does not require Java language changes and module-info 
>> source files. Putting a name and a version on a jar file does not 
>> make it a module.
>
> If I may summarize: Applications are, in your view, either so simple 
> as to need only basic Maven-like functionality, or so complex as to 
> need dynamic visibility over multiple versions with strong encapsulation.
>
> This echoes Peter's view that "Nobody needs modularity for a Hello 
> World program, and letting this use case drive the design seems plain 
> wrong" and "small applications do not have to bother with modularity". 
> [1]
>
> If Maven suffices for versioning and dependency tracking - not "real" 
> modularity but still of some value, in your view - why does the Simple 
> Module System claim the same ground by standardizing versions and 
> dependencies in the language?

To me, this line of discussion completely misses the important point. If 
294 modules are required to be loaded by a single class loader, then 
they are useless in any environments that are either dynamic or support 
side-by-side versions, which throws their reuse out the window. Thus, 
there is very little benefit of the SMS proposal over the "big hook" 
approach.

-> richard

>
> Alex
>
> [1]http://www.osgi.org/blog/2009/06/classpath-hell-just-froze-over.html
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