bit late on "by design" party - java 'binary' (not source, which is easier) compatibility is an exceptionally important feature. E.g. changing method signature like void x(int val) to void x(long val) does break the binary compatibility and it means the original method has to be preserved, potentially as something like void x(int val){x((long) val);} - which just calls the new method by casting val. It some cases the original method might be marked as deprecated.

There are countless examples of such a behavior.

It's ABSOLUTELY by design.

On the Java Mailing Lists, the creators/stewards of Java are constantly fighting back so many feature requests BECAUSE those features would threaten backwards compatibility. And that mailing list has been going on for a long time now. You can see feature requests (and their subsequent rejections) going as far back as the late 90's lol

> rather than by design

Remember, Java came from Sun. Backward compatibility was an absolute requirement at Sun for nearly everything. Compatibility is hard-baked-in to the culture.

Oracle plays more loose, but a lot of the people are still around.

Definitely by design.