[lang] Release issues

[Henri Yandell <ba...@generationjava.com>]

Afaik, the only release issue not dealt with and in CVS is the question
over whether XxxUtils classes [I don't think it's limited to StringUtils
as a concept?] should follow some defined set of rules for how they handle
null.

Looking into this does make sense, but the question in hand is do we hold
off on the release to iron it out or release and improve later?

The obvious answer is to not release as we'll be pushing out 1.0 and have
all the backwards compat crap. However I've stopped believing that over
the last year:

1) We already have a user base who are vociferous when a change is made.
2) 2.0 is allowed to break 1.0.
3) This is a big issue that lots of people feel strongly about, it'll drag
other people in and take a while to find a consensus on.
4) Hopefully many methods are working in a best-fit case already. For
example, I'm a believer that:  StringUtils.capitalise(null) should return
null. It's merely paint. So we can't globally solve it by making all
deal in the same way.

I've also been thinking the last couple of days that we're failing in the
release early-release often frame of mind. I think this is easy to do when
you're making an abstract API. The question is, is it good?

So I'm looking for a feeling for how we feel we should go with the
release. Are there any other issues to worry about and do we feel this
issue should hold things up?

Hen


--
To unsubscribe, e-mail:   <ma...@jakarta.apache.org>
For additional commands, e-mail: <ma...@jakarta.apache.org>