[jdom-interest] JDOM 2 Alpha release

[Rolf]

Hi all and Happy New Year!

I have just uploaded a new JDOM2 'package' jdom-2.x-2012.01.01.19.15 
which I am designating as the JDOM2 "Alpha" Release.

Find it here: https://github.com/hunterhacker/jdom/downloads

The JDOM2 pages have been updated to match the JavaDoc API, Code 
coverage, and Unit-test results as well. See the 'entry' page here:

https://github.com/hunterhacker/jdom/wiki/JDOM-2.0#wiki-links

There are eleven 'issues' currently outstanding. None of them are bugs 
in the core functionality of JDOM. In other words, this JDOM2 Alpha 
release has no known bugs.

Please help with this and ensure we discover any gremlins sooner rather 
than later.

It is my expectation that for regular users there will be very few 
'interface' changes between now and JDOM2 final release. There may be 
some 'transparent' extensions to the API, and there may/will be changes 
to the 'sub-classing' API, so if you have custom sub-classes of JDOM 
code then you will probably want to pay special attention.

If you *do* have sub-classes of JDOM code now is a very important time 
to test JDOM2 to see if your code will break, and how JDOM2 can best be 
adapted/fixed to continue to support your custom requirements.

To create some form of 'deadline' for JDOM2 I intend to (provisionally):

- 2 Feb
     GroundHog Day!
     all current issues resolved - submit any issues to the mailing list 
if you encounter any.
     Deadline for new feature requests/enhancements - mail the list if 
you have any.


- 14 Feb
     'Valentine' *BETA* Release on 14th February - may shift depending 
on any large enhancements/requests.

- 29 Feb
     'Leap Day' Second *BETA* - All class/method signatures 'locked' Bug 
Fixing only

- 9 Apr
     'Easter' JDOM2 Release



So, please get playing with JDOM2, if you don't provide feedback in this 
time period there's a good chance there will not be an opportunity later 
to get that 'sweet' feature in that you want.



Please Note
===========

I believe this release is 'stable' in the sense that the code is fully 
functional. I believe that while there may be bugs, the code is 
generally in good condition, and it can be trusted to do 'the right 
thing' with nearly as much confidence as JDOM 1.1.2.

This is an alpha release though, and the expectation is that there will 
be some issues with the code, and I fully expect there to be small 
changes to some method/interface calls as the need arises.



Happy Coding!

Rolf