Hi,
I maintain the picocli library for creating command line applications in
Groovy, Java, and other JVM languages.
I have a question for the Groovy community (both users and developers):
Currently, the picocli main jar contains both the core `picocli` package
and a `picocli.groovy` package with classes that make it easy for Groovy
scripts to use picocli annotations. I'm considering splitting up this jar.
In an upcoming major release of the library I plan to provide a Java 9 JPMS
modular jar containing just the core `picocli` package and additionally a
`module-info.class` to make this jar a full-fledged Java module.
The question is what to do with the picocli.groovy package. I see two
options:
1) have a `picocli-groovy` jar containing _only_ the picocli.groovy package
- this jar would require (have a dependency on) the core picocli jar (the
JPMS modular jar). Ideally this `picocli-groovy` jar would also be a JPMS
module, but not sure if that's possible.
2) have a `picocli-legacy?` (name TBD) jar containing both the core picocli
package and the picocli.groovy package - similar to the current
picocli-3.9.x jar
I believe the first option may be cleanest. Scripts would need to change
their grape module from @Grab('info.picocli:picocli:$version') to
@Grab('info.picocli:picocli-groovy:4.0.0') and that would bring in the
transitive dependency on 'info.picocli:picocli:4.0.0', if my understanding
is correct.
Can anyone see any drawbacks with this approach?
Would there be any point in additionally providing a `picocli-legacy` (name
TBD) jar containing both the core picocli package and the picocli.groovy
package, similar to the current picocli-3.9.x jar?
On a side-note, has anyone had any issues with putting the
`module-info.class` in the root of the modular jar versus putting it in
META-INF/versions/9/ in the jar?
Some people <https://github.com/moditect/moditect/issues/67> use
META-INF/versions/9/ as a way to (hopefully) avoid issues with older tools
unable to cope with the `module-info.class`. Does anyone have any
experience with this?
Remko
