[Springframework-developer] m4 release adds servlet 2.3 dependencies

[Darren D. <dda...@kg...>]

Just dropped an m4 spring.jar into some apps running on WebSphere 4.x (Servlet
2.2) and all break due to the recently added ServletContextResource class
which introduces a Servlet 2.3 dependency in its getDescription() method.

servletContext.getServletContextName() 

was only added in Servlet API 2.3


This is bad news for us, particularly as some of the other changes in m4 are
very welcome just ahead of another phase of development on our major project.
 We will still have to support WebSphere 4 for another few months, so I now
have to either stick with 1.0-m3 or hack the m4 release.

There may be other dependencies, I haven't checked, but other people will have
the same issue and removing the one reference at least makes all *my* apps
work again.  If it turns out that this is the only problem, what chance of it
being changed for backwards compatibility?  I'd never suggesting holding back
development, but it's only a description method and it seems a shame to break
a lot of applications over ;)

Additionally, the xjavadoc.jar (now required to build Spring) isn't included
in the 'with-dependencies' release - should it not be?

Regards,
--
Darren Davison
Public Key: http://www.davison.uk.net/key.jsp