Dave Syer opened SPR-6102 and commented
FrameworkServlet does not need its parent to be WebApplicationContext, but the signature of createWebApplicationContext() mandates it. It would be a small change, but quite helpful to people embedding a servlet application (e.g. in a test) to allow that method to accept a plain ApplicationContext (as it says it does in the Javadocs)
Affects: 3.0 M3
Referenced from: commits c3bf658, af0a529