Good points. I need to come up with something more precise.

There is also this little nit in JavaCompiler: "The versions of these
specifications are defined in the Tool interface."

On Dec 4, 2006, at 8:51 PM, ... wrote:

>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: ###@###.###
>> Sent: Tuesday, 5 December 2006 2:53 PM
>> To: compiler-dev@...
>> Subject: Re: META-INF/services/...
>>
>> On Dec 4, 2006, at 8:18 PM, ... wrote:
>>>
>>> You may want to concider rewritting the javadoc for SE6 as well.
>>>
>>> http://download.java.net/jdk6/docs/api/javax/tools/Tool.html
>>>
>>> Specifically:
>>>
>>> "Tools can be located using ServiceLoader.load(Class)."
>>
>> Yes. Thank you for pointing this out.
>
>
> You may also be interested in the following references:
>
> ToolProvider.java:
> http://download.java.net/jdk6/docs/api/javax/tools/ToolProvider.html
>
> "Provides methods for locating tool providers, for example,
> providers of compilers. This class complements the
> functionality of ServiceLoader."
>
> And in the javax/tools package summary:
> http://download.java.net/jdk6/docs/api/javax/tools/package-
> summary.html
>
> "It is possible to provide alternative compilers or tools
> through the service provider mechanism.
>
> For example, if com.vendor.VendorJavaCompiler is a
> provider of the JavaCompiler tool then its jar file
> would contain the file
> META-INF/services/javax.tools.JavaCompiler. This
> file would contain the single line:
>
> com.vendor.VendorJavaCompiler
>
> If the jar file is on the class path, VendorJavaCompiler
> can be located using code like this:
>
> JavaCompiler compiler =
> ServiceLoader.load(JavaCompiler.class).iterator().next();"
>
> (although strictly speaking the package summary is referencing
> alternative compilers - although I should note that it is easy to
> presume from the SE6 docs that standard javac would be visible
> if tools.jar was in scope)