Re:The story of Google Guava and patches
by peeters on Monday March 12, 2012 @12:40AM
(#3692358)
You really have to take the good with the bad when it comes to Google sponsored libraries.
I'm usually won over by them because Google does truly great Java API design, their releases are relatively high quality (there is some assurance of quality when it's used internally at Google) and their libraries almost always enforce good design (they don't accept things that you would consider helpful if they think it will be easy to use incorrectly or abuse).
But with that comes the bad. If something's not helpful to Google, it won't have sponsorship to be added to the library. The library will always support only versions of Java that Google internally uses (Kevin has said before that it is unlikely that Guava will be expanded to cover even Java 6 any time soon).
So I'm enjoying using their libraries while they are current, but am fully aware that they might need to be forked eventually.
I'm usually won over by them because Google does truly great Java API design, their releases are relatively high quality (there is some assurance of quality when it's used internally at Google) and their libraries almost always enforce good design (they don't accept things that you would consider helpful if they think it will be easy to use incorrectly or abuse).
But with that comes the bad. If something's not helpful to Google, it won't have sponsorship to be added to the library. The library will always support only versions of Java that Google internally uses (Kevin has said before that it is unlikely that Guava will be expanded to cover even Java 6 any time soon).
So I'm enjoying using their libraries while they are current, but am fully aware that they might need to be forked eventually.