When you have a module A with an optional dependency on B (`requires static B`), module B is not resolved from the module path unless `--add-modules B` is provided at startup (tested with jigsaw-b151). In [1] this is mentioned as a detail, and in fact it is phrased as a question there. Is this still an open question? Because in my mind, expressing an optional dependency *and* having to add the module as root module to get it resolved seems a bit over the top (and typically you'd also have to add it as dependency in your build tool of choice to get it on the module path).
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"If it's on the module path, use it, otherwise, ignore it" is intuitively more appealing to me for optional dependencies. It also more closely resembles the way things currently work on the classpath with many frameworks. For linking, I can see why adding optional modules explicitly is better. Still, I think not having to do this at run-time (just like service provider modules are resolved at run-time but not at link-time) makes more sense. Regards, Sander [1] http://openjdk.java.net/projects/jigsaw/spec/issues/#CompileTimeDependences
