The "old" MapReduce API in org.apache.hadoop.mapred was deprecated in the 0.20 release series when the "new" (Context Objects) MapReduce API was added in org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce. Unfortunately, the new API was not complete in 0.20 and most users stayed with the old API. This has led to the confusing situation where the old API is generally recommended, even though it is deprecated.
To remedy this situation I suggest that we remove deprecations from the old API in 0.20 and trunk, and mark the new API as "Evolving" (see MAPREDUCE-1623 for the latter). This would mean a few things: * The next 0.20 release would have a non-deprecated old API. * The forthcoming 0.21 release would have a "Stable" (non-deprecated) old API, and a "Evolving" new API. * For some pre-1.0 release (perhaps 0.22), the old API could be deprecated again, and the new API marked as "Stable". * In the 1.0 release it would be possible to remove the old API. Thoughts? Tom