[Biojava-dev] Why isn't SimpleAnnotation in org.biojava.bio.impl ?

[Thomas Down]

Once upon a time, Benjamin Schuster-Boeckler wrote:
> I wondered because generally I thought all implementing classes should 
> go into a dedicated impl directory... I guess this is only for backward 
> compatibility then?!

We like the idea of keeping implementations separate from interfaces
using impl packages, but unfortunately we didn't think of this when
we first started BioJava.  The Annotation interface (and SimpleAnnotation)
go right back to pre-1.0 versions of BioJava.

There has been a certain amount of discussion about doing some
major redesign and refactoring to produce a "BioJava 2.0" -- that's
probably the best time to make an interface/implementation split
universal.

     Thomas.