Missing package warning and quick fix for 'pure' OSGI

[ewillink]

eclipse-uml2/uml2#141 discusses a failure of Eclipse UML2 on Felix caused by a missing org.xml.sax Import-Package.

The org.xml.sax package was originally part of rt.jar and has subsequently been made available on Equinox presumably by the --add-modules=ALL-SYSTEM in Eclipse.ini. It appears that there is no corresponding ability to provide legacy visibility on Felix.

Providing the missing Import-Package is trivial but Eclipse plugin developers are unaware that their plugins may be defective for Felix. Diagnosing the problem and getting the fix will often be too troublemsome and take too long for a Felix user who may simply conclude that Eclipse XXX does not work.

Surely --add-modules=ALL-SYSTEM should be a temporary sticking plaster not a permananent fix? In the same way that a warning and quick fix encouraged the addition an an Automatic-Module-Name, suggest that the PDE Manifest editor provide a warning and Import-Package quick fix for all packages whose visibility is dependent on --add-modules=ALL-SYSTEM.

[laeubi]

Surely --add-modules=ALL-SYSTEM should be a temporary sticking plaster not a permananent fix?

I'd like to mention that this is required for it to fully work but the actual issue is the legacy boot delegation classloading enabled by default when using the Eclipse launcher.

If you want to make sure maximum compatibility with Felix, start your product with -Dosgi.compatibility.bootdelegation=false but be aware that many bundles in eclipse eco system violate the contract and you likely have to add a lot of imports.

I'm already working on this to make it better but because it is so deeply baked into the Eclipse eco-system its not that easy to fix.