[hibernate-dev] Redefining the API/SPI/implementation split

One of today's issues for Hibernate Search had the goal to move this class: org.hibernate.search.engine.spi.SearchFactoryImplementor to not have the "SPI" package postfix as we never meant this to be part of the SPI but rather an internal contract. While it's an internal contract, it's functionality is needed by other modules *in our same repository*, for example hibernate-search-orm needs to access it. So we consider it an integration contract across our own shards, but it's not meant to be used by anyone else. So it seemed a straight-forward decision to move it to: org.hibernate.search.engine.impl.SearchFactoryImplementor However then we need to patch the OSGi descriptor to export this package: org.hibernate.search.engine.impl By doing so this will export more than what is strictly necessary - as there are other classes in there - and this gets Karaf to blow up with many nasty errors as there are dependent classloaders being triggered by those other internal components. So we really need to keep those sealed into the module. So I was thinking to create a new package classification "internal": org.hibernate.search.engine.internal.SearchFactoryImplementor We would export this package via OSGi descriptors, but still the name should be self-explanatory enough as a warning to other consumers? Sanne