Currently there are 3 tags all describing the same entity:
- javac (332 questions)
- javacompiler (45 questions)
- java-compiler (6 questions)
I think both javacompiler and java-compiler should be made synonyms of javac.
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1 Answer
Actually, javac is just one of several implementations of a Java compiler (the most common one, available in Oracle's JDK and OpenJDK, though also many use the eclipse-compiler). So, in principle the [java-compiler] tag could be more general, for example for comparisons of different java compilers.
On the other hand, many of the current questions of both java-compiler and javacompiler seem to be about javac, so a merge into javac might be appropriate.
As mentioned by Joachim in the comments, quite some of the questions in the [javacompiler] tag are actually about usages of the Java compiler API (javax.tools.JavaCompiler and related classes/interfaces). (These are actually also using the JRE's default compiler implementation, most likely the same that is javac.)
For these, java-compiler-api could be more appropriate (and not easily misused).
Then java-compilers would be for general questions about any Java compilers.
I just removed the java-compiler tag from all its 4 questions (retagging as appropriate), and then did a short survey of javacompiler: It has now 44 questions. Of those (by just looking at the question list),
- 5 seem to be wrongly tagged (i.e. about Java in general)
- 7 seem to be actually about javac
- 20 are about the compiler API (java-compiler-api)
- 6 are about Java compilers in general, or about the eclipse compiler (java-compilers)
- 6 are not totally clear from just looking at the summary.
So I think I'll go through the list, retag all but the java-compiler-api ones, and then hope to get an SO moderator to merge/synonym the remaining ones.
(Maybe someone else will have a look at existing javac questions to see if there are any which need retagging.)
Okay, we now have 22 questions with javacompiler left, which should be merged into java-compiler-api (1 question).
I was not able to create the java-compilers tag (for questions about Java-compilers in general), thus I used java-compiler for those questions. These should be renamed or merged to java-compilers now.
Could some kind Stack Overflow moderator do these two tag merges/renames?
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actually quite a few of the javacompiler questions are about the
javax.tools.JavaCompilerinterface introduced in Java 6 to support invocation of the Java compiler from within a Java application. Oct 18, 2011 at 13:06 -
So, would a new tag for this (with appropriate tag wiki) be useful? Oct 18, 2011 at 13:09
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an improved tag wiki would certainly be an enhancement here. However, I don't know what the tag should be named javacompiler would seem pretty good, but as this post demonstrates, it can easily be mistaken to be about java compilers in general. Maybe using javac (for
javac), java-compilers (for Java compilers in general, if necessary) and javacompiler (for the interface) would be the correct approach. Oct 18, 2011 at 13:14 -
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He-he… Creating the new tag [java-compilers] is not allowed since the tag [java-compiler] already exists. If you think this new tag should be allowed, raise it on meta.– VoloOct 18, 2011 at 15:37
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@Idolon Yeah. I remarked this ... I'll use [java-compiler] for now, and then see if I can get it merged/renamed. Oct 18, 2011 at 15:38
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@PaŭloEbermann +1 for good work. Do you know if it would be better to remove "accepted" from your answer to draw moderators attention to this question?– VoloOct 20, 2011 at 11:59
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@Idolon I flagged this answer for moderator attention, but it looks like the SO moderators have too much to do with SO flags to look through the flag list here. (I also tried to hunt one down in the moderator chat room, but they seldom show up in the last time.) Removing the accept might be still a good idea (until the renames are done). Oct 20, 2011 at 12:07
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@Idolon Thanks to mmyers, this is done now. You can accept again. Oct 20, 2011 at 12:40