[jboss-dev] Public vs. Private API's

[Anil Saldhana]

I think this is an excellent discussion, Andy.  This was something that 
I wanted to bring up also.

If you look at the Java EE 5 platform Javadocs, it is not clear which 
api is available to bean developers, spi implementors and container vendors.
http://java.sun.com/javaee/5/docs/api/


Andrig Miller wrote:
> I was going to start a thread on one of the design forums but there isn't an overall AS design forum, so I'm posting to the dev list instead. 
>
> We have been having a discussion within the TDM's about documenting the public vs. "private" API's. The problem we continue to have is customers start using API's that are usually, but not always, third-party libraries that are used as implementation details for an API we do mean for them to use. Of course, then they start asking for support of that usage. 
>
> As this discussion took place internally, we starting batting around the idea of separately all the things we would like to be private into its own lib directory. So having one lib directory where have all the API's that we intend to have customers/users use, and one where we have everything else, so we can clearly communicate what should be used and what shouldn't be used directly. 
>
> What do you guys think? Is this even possible? 
>
> Andy 
>
>