Hi all, As you have probably seen, I've been working on improving Java 9 support. The current TODO list is:
- module path scanning - handling multi-release JARs in the JarScanner I've been looking at the module path scanning and while there are various approaches, they all make fairly heavy use of Java 9 APIs. Implementing them via the existing JreCompat approach is going to require a lot of reflection. That got me thinking about the obvious alternative: multi-release JARs. Handling multi-release JARs is going to require some changes / additions to the build process and source layout. That reminded me of a comment that Rémy made at TomcatCon in London regarding modularisation and build tools and whether we wanted to do things differently. If we want to make changes in that area it probably makes sense to make them now - hence this e-mail. Modularisation and build tools are inter-related so I think it makes sense to discuss them together. Hence this thread. I'm going to start with what I think is the easy one: Modularisation. Tomcat is already modular. You can remove some features (JSP, WebSocket, clustering?, store-config?) simply by removing the JARs. Do we want to take this further? Nothing immediately springs to mind hence the fairly open question: what changes could we implement to make Tomcat more modular and how would those changes benefit our users? The build tools aspect has, historically, been the area where fairly strong opinions have been expressed. The argument against Ant is that it isn't as well known amongst prospective new contributors as other tools and hence creates a barrier to contributing that harms the community. The argument for Ant is that it works, it isn't causing any pain points and it has the flexibility to handle all aspects of our build. The usual candidate for an alternative build system is Maven. The argument for Maven is that it is more widely known and hence easier to get started with. The argument against is broadly that Maven is very opinionated and they way Tomcat currently does things is not consistent with what Maven expects and some things (e.g. the Windows installer) are well outside the typical Maven build. Therefore switching to Maven would require a fair amount of effort. I'd like to suggest a third alternative: Gradle. The argument for Gradle is that it can boot-strap itself so, unlike Ant, a new user doesn't need to download the build tool. Gradle can also import Ant build files so we could start with a simple Gradle script that simply imported the current Ant script and then migrate slowly over time. The argument against is that it isn't as widely known as Maven. My own views are neutral at this point on modularisation. I don't have any immediate suggestions for changes but I'd like to hear what ideas others have. On build systems, I'm not convinced that the benefits of switching to Maven justify the costs. Gradle looks promising and I do like the boot-strapping feature. If there was consensus to move to Gradle, I'd be willing to help that process. Mark --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@tomcat.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@tomcat.apache.org
