On Wed, Nov 9, 2022, at 07:23, Greg Methvin wrote: > If Pekko uses a different package name, most of those libraries will need > to support Akka users that are not ready to migrate to Pekko, so they will > need to release equivalent versions for Akka and Pekko at the same time. > That will probably not be too hard if we have a tool to migrate an Akka > codebase to Pekko, but it will definitely complicate things for more > complex projects like Play.
One thing to keep in mind is that releasing Pekko under a different package name is the only way libraries are able to support both, the only way forward. We can't publish with the same group id on Maven Central, therefore we cannot evict Akka from the classpath, therefore both can be and will be on the classpath at the same time. For both libraries and users, having Pekko use the same package name would be an absolute nightmare for both libraries and apps, because you then have to manually manage exclusions in your build. Because both Pekko and Akka tend to be transitive dependencies. Play Framework's development, AFAIK, was donated and is no longer sponsored by Lightbend. I loved Play Framework and I used it in many projects over the years, the only framework for Scala that brought us the "Ruby on Rails" experience. Personally, I can no longer touch it, as long as it depends on Akka, because its API assumes usage of actors, and so it's a minefield. I don't know the future, but if we're taking bets, I'd bet that Play Framework will fully migrate to Pekko and leave Akka completely behind 🤷♂️ because that's the only way forward for FOSS projects like it. This is just a personal opinion of course, but I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that Play, like Akka, is a hot potato right now for many projects. And the difference b/w Play and Akka is that for Akka at least you have commercial development and support available. My prediction is that if Pekko turns out to be a viable fork, the entire FOSS ecosystem around Akka will turn around to depend on it, instead of Akka; so trying to use the same package name would be just a short-term fix that can only cause problems. There's a big IF in there, of course 🙂 -- Alexandru Nedelcu alexn.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
