...
On demand download (of newest javac on old JDKs) is problematic
user needs internet connection
- download server needs to be on (finally nb-javac is at least hosted on Maven central)
e.g. sometimes download fails
- Code is complicated
- Supporting multiple releases of javac (from different JDKs) complicates NetBeans code
- NetBeans code in
java.source
& related modules if full of reflection - NetBeans is using internal API of javac (Trees API) and it changes incompatibly with every release
Testing matrix is complicated
each supported JDK needs to be tested twice - with
nb-javac
and withoutnb-javac
every JDKs javac is a bit different
Every bug/problem one needs to know whether
nb-javac
was or wasn't in useRecent version
nb-javac-15
isn't really stable
Old
nb-javac is a fork of JDK's javacnobody likes forks
ironically Arvind's team is part of JDK organization - e.g. it maintains own fork of JDK's
javac
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