Dalibor Topic wrote:
In terms of using a minimal OSGi environment for partitioning and
management of class library parts, what differences would be relevant
between R2/R3/R4?
Between R2 and R3, not much...you can pretty much consider those two
equivalent.
R4 adds some considerable differences to prior releases that may be
relevant for you, such as:
* Package import are now allowed to specify version ranges.
* Imports and exports can specify arbitrary attributes to help
direct how resolving occurs in a simplistic way.
* Support for sharing multiple versions of the same classes at the
same time.
* Along with the above, an improved consistency model that allows an
exported package to declare "uses" relationships on its imports
(and/or with other exported packages in the same bundle) so that
the framework can make sure that a given class space doesn't see
more than one version of a given class.
* Other forms of dependencies and packaging, such as explicit bundle
dependencies (as opposed to package dependencies) and bundle
fragments (that allow a logical bundle to be delivered in multiple
physical bundles). [These features are more advanced and can be
abused.]
These are some of the main things that I can think of off the top of my
head. At this point, Felix supports the first four bullets.
I will actually be giving a presentation at ApacheCon in San Diego on
this exact topic, so if anyone is interested in more details, please
stop by and listen. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me.
-> richard
