Question

I mean, can I use the com.sun.org.apache (all subpackages) classes as I use they from org.apache (in any Apache lib)?

Will the OpenJDK maintain this package up to date with apache updates?

And the JDK7 will maintain this package?

Where can I find information about that?

Answer 1

It is a very bad idea to use it. Once upon a time, Sun took a copy of Xerces, chock full of bugs. They made some changes. Perhaps they subtracted some bugs. We know that there are many very serious bugs that they did not subtract.

And they renamed it to com.sun…. for one reason: to tell you not to use it. At any time, in any point release, in any patch, they can change those classes incompatibly or remove them.

Further, these classes may not be in IBM’s copy of the JRE, or Apple’s, or (haha) Microsoft’s, or JRocket.

If you want Xerces, use Xerces. To find information about this, read the Xerces-j mailing list archive for many stern warnings from the Xerces developers about the version forked by Sun.

The fact that the classes are formally ‘public’ means nothing except that Sun needed to be able to new them from some other package.