Classes / methods - removed / changed in SDK

Question

I was having the discussion today whether any classes or methods have ever been removed from the core Java SDK over the years. I know stuff gets deprecated but has it ever been changed or removed?

I thought it had (I can't think of examples) so maybe I am wrong.

I read some articles online which suggested that nothing had been removed - ever!

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Best you have a look at this article by Oracle: Java SE 7 and JDK 7 Compatibility

A small copy paste from the article:

Source Compatibility

Java SE 7 includes new language features and platform APIs. If these are used in a source file, that source file cannot be compiled on an earlier version of the Java platform.

In general, the source compatibility policy is to avoid introducing source code incompatibilities.

Deprecated APIs are interfaces that are supported only for compatibility with previous releases. The javac compiler generates a warning message whenever one of these is used, unless the -nowarn command-line option is used. It is recommended that programs be modified to eliminate the use of deprecated APIs, although there are no current plans to remove such APIs entirely from the system.

Some APIs in the sun.* packages have changed. These APIs are not intended for use by developers. Developers importing from sun.* packages do so at their own risk. For more details, see Why Developers Should Not Write Programs That Call sun.* Packages.