(for those that wonder, I'm one of the developers over at the Avalon project)
Dear friends, The set of interfaces in org.apache.avalon.framework.component has been deprecated for some time now in favour of interfaces in org.apache.avalon.framework.service. Both of these packages live inside Avalon Framework (avalon-framework.jar). The main difference between the packages is that usage of the Component marker interface (in method signatures) has been dropped in favour of the java.lang.Object class. This allows better interoperability with other component/service-based frameworks like CORBA and generally lessens the pain involved in moving existing software over to avalon. Though it will be a long time before the component.* interfaces are removed from Avalon Framework or support for them is removed from avalon containers (in the JAMES case Avalon Phoenix and Avalon Excalibur's Merlin are the ones of interest), removing dependencies on these interfaces from all parts of JAMES has several benefits. It will likely increase the amount and quality of avalon-based components available for use within JAMES in the future (for example, Turbine is moving its components over to be based on Avalon Framework, and will probably use the service package in favour of the component package). It will also improve interoperability between JAMES and frameworks like CORBA. Finally, it will guarantee the best possible support for JAMES in avalon containers like Phoenix for the foreseeable future. Therefore, I suggest you deprecate all usage of the interfaces org.apache.avalon.framework.component namespace within JAMES as soon as possible in favour of the replacements inside org.apache.avalon.framework.service. When appropriate with regard to backward compatibility you need to maintain to the JAMES user community, I suggest you move from those interfaces to the replacement interfaces inside org.apache.avalon.framework.service. Note this is not ment as any kind of "official" position from the Avalon team, though I suspect most of the avalon committers would agree in broad terms =) Note also I have not said anything about the Mailet API. I feel I'm not familiar enough with JAMES to fully understand the advantages/ disadvantages of the use of ComponentManager inside that API. I hope this message helps clarify what the issue is and allows you to determine the right course of action. best regards, Leo Simons -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
