Re: Re[2]: [equinox-dev] RequiresBundle, ImportPackage and virtual provi

[Thomas Watson <tjwatson@xxxxxxxxxx>]

equinox-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 03/31/2006
02:17:07 AM:

> 1. The only difference between Require bundle and Import Package is
>    granularity. There are -no- lifecycle differences. Actually,
>    require bundle is internally transformed to the same
wires as import
>    package uses. Note that also packages should be versioned.
Again,
>    there are no differences but granularity.
> 

There is one other key difference in Require-Bundle
vs Import-Package.
When multiple bundles export parts of a "split"
package then the only 
way to combine all the parts into a "full"
package it is for an 
aggregate bundle to require all the bundles which
export the "split" 
package and then the aggregate bundle exports the
full package.

This is possible with Require-Bundle because the class/resource
lookups 
do not terminate at a Require-Bundle wire like they
do with 
Import-Package wires.  Also Import-Package only
allows you to import 
from a single source bundle (you cannot specify the
same package 
more than once in an Import-Package statement).

So a scenario where you must use Require-Bundle is
when you are 
splitting a single bundle into multiple bundles and
you are required
to split a package.  In this case the strong
coupling is necessary and 
natural to ensure the original "complete"
bundle can aggregate the 
split content.

Tom