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[clacke <launchpad@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was just playing devil's advocate with myself and trying to understand
why one would want to depend on a package or meta-package instead of a
virtual dependency. And it certainly is the case that different
implementations differ in how well the implement the APIs and how much
they implement.

For me, coming from the outside, it seems more obvious to depend on
java2-compiler than on default-jdk. But this is not the forum to discuss
this. Instead of spamming this bug with my objections and/or
misunderstandings, I will start reading at
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JavaPolicy> and see where that leads. Thank you
for the time you have given me.

-- 
Inconsistent 'Provides' for different java compilers/runtimes
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/189953
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which is subscribed to openjdk-6 in ubuntu.

Status in “icedtea-java7” package in Ubuntu: Invalid
Status in “openjdk-6” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released

Bug description:
Following are values for 'Provides' field for different java compilers/runtimes.

icedtea-java7-jdk - java-sdk, java2-sdk, java5-sdk, java6-sdk, java7-sdk
icedtea-java7-jre - java-runtime, java2-runtime, java5-runtime, java6-runtime, java7-runtime
sun-java5-jdk - java-compiler, java2-compiler
sun-java5-jre - java-runtime, java-runtime-headless, java2-runtime, java2-runtime-headless, java5-runtime, java5-runtime-headless, java-virtual-machine
sun-java6-jdk - java-compiler, java2-compiler
sun-java6-jre - java-runtime, java-runtime-headless, java2-runtime, java2-runtime-headless, java5-runtime, java5-runtime-headless, java6-runtime, java6-runtime-headless, java-virtual-machine
gcj-4.2 - java-compiler
gij-4.2 - java-runtime-headless, java1-runtime-headless, java2-runtime-headless, java5-runtime-headless, java-virtual-machine
kaffe - Doesn't have a 'Provides' field
jikes - Doesn't have a 'Provides' field
sablevm - java-runtime, java1-runtime, java-virtual-machine

As per my understanding
java-compiler - just a compiler without a VM ex. jikes
java-virtual-machine - just a VM without a compiler ex. sablevm
java-runtime - compiler + VM. 

Irrespective of whether my understanding is correct or not there has to be a consistency. Specifically icedtea-java7-jdk is out of sync with other compilers like Sun, GCJ.