Backward compatibility is really an issue in computer software development theses days. And on both sides … Well I would say only one actually but let’s try to be fair.

On the dev side (mine), ensuring backward compatibility is sometimes sooOoo painful (and so easy to forget). Wanna a proof of that?

Sun which is definitely a big figure of the Java world has made a funny non backward compatibility in its J2EE specs between version 1.3 and 1.4. In the deployment descriptor of an EAR file, one could specify a description and display-name. Those elements are specified as first elements of the application.xml file.

In J2EE 1.3, one must write (to comply with the J2EE 1.3 DTD):


My Cool J2EE application
cool description