Name: nt126004 Date: 04/16/2002


FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
java version "1.4.0"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.0-b92)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.0-b92, mixed mode)


A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
The Preferences API guide
(.../docs/guide/lang/preferences.html)
doesn't say how to find out how data is stored on a specific
platform.

It doesn't say what the Java platform does by default for
different OS versions.

It doesn't say whether the default behavior can be changed.

It does say: "The user of this class needn't be concerned with details of the backing store."

Indeed, the programmer using the class doesn't need to know.

However, the user using the whole JDK does need to know.


Consider someone implementing some application in Java.
That person would need to know where the data was stored in
order to be able to document the behavior of the application.


Sun separates the programming interface from different
implementations of the interface, but that doesn't mean
users don't need some information about the implementation.

Consider the JNDI interface. Code calling the JNDI methods
doesn't need to know whether the JNDI provider is accessing
an LDAP server or something else. The developer assembling
a working system need to know to supply a JNDI provider,
and needs to know whether that provider will try to contact
an LDAP server or will try to read from the file system.


The Preferences API is similar. Programmers using that
API don't need to know the implementation to call the API,
but they need to know how the data is stored (e.g., to delete
it, to back it up, etc.)


STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
1. Read the Preferences API Guide.
    (.../docs/guide/lang/preferences.html)


This bug can be reproduced always.
(Review ID: 143916)
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