Spec changes are already prohibited in update releases. If a documentation change implies a spec change then it's not allowed by our rules. This means though that it should be "safe" to update/republish the documentation with each update release. To me this seems like a good idea as it allows for incremental improvement without having to wait multiple years between major releases. I would gladly trade being able to make more frequent updates for additional caution in what changes we allow.
Mike On Sep 17 2012, at 03:17 , Artem Ananiev wrote: > > (Adding conformance-discuss to CC) > > On 9/17/2012 2:11 PM, Alan Bateman wrote: >> On 17/09/2012 11:01, Artem Ananiev wrote: >>> >>> JavaDoc changes, even trivial corrections and clarifications, are >>> potential compatibility issues. Previously unverifiable statement can >>> become verifiable, and vice versa. We don't (can't!) change >>> compatibility tests in update releases, therefore we can't accept any >>> specification changes. >> The discussion here relates to changes to non-normative text rather than >> a specification change. I don't think it matters too much if such >> changes are back-ported except that it might be a bit confusing to have >> a mismatch between the source code and the docs on java.sun.com (or >> docs.orcale.com nowadays). > > The difference between "non-normative text" and "specification" is often too > subtle, and people may have different opinion what is what. I personally > don't have any better ideas than to prohibit any spec changes in update > releases, but I don't want to pretend to be a compatibility expert. > > Thanks, > > Artem > >> -Alan
