JSR-277: At last... a module system for Java!

The early draft for JSR-277 has been made available. This is good news! We will have a module system for Java. Its a bit late in the game... Ruby has a module system (GEM), Perl has CPAN, Linux has many... Why did it take so long to have one for Java? Maybe it did not itch that many people. But then why would the Maven team choose to create a repository for dependencies management, it must have itch!

I did a quick read of the specification... And here are my first reaction :

1. Great! A module system for Java... At last, Java application will be easier to install and we will have a dependable versioning system,
2. Why do I need to specify in the module definition all the classes that are present in the module? Maybe I did not understand the value of the "members" definition, but I guess that everything inside a module should be a module member. I see no reason to duplicate that information,
3. I could say the same thin about the "class-exports". Why does the module system need this? It could use class visibility modifiers to do the same thing. I can see a bit of value if it was there to suggest the main entry points and/or API of the module. It should be optional,
4. There is no use cases on how to install and manage existing module using tools. The specification says that it does not specify any tools. I believe that local repository management tools are a must and should be provided and made standard. At least a command-line tool should be specified. Just like we have a standard specification for using the "java" command even if it has implementation specific options.

Overall, I think this is great news. It does come a bit late and will not be available unto Java 7. But this will still be a great improvement over the current situation.