Index: lucene/CHANGES.txt
===================================================================
--- lucene/CHANGES.txt	(revision 1056995)
+++ lucene/CHANGES.txt	(working copy)
@@ -131,6 +131,9 @@
 * LUCENE-2837: Changed Weight#scorer, Weight#explain & Filter#getDocIdSet to
   operate on a ReaderContext instead of directly on IndexReader to enable
   searches to be aware of IndexSearcher's context. (Simon Willnauer)
+  
+* LUCENE-2839: Scorer#score(Collector,int,int) is now public because it is
+  called from other classes and part of public API. (Uwe Schindler)
 
 Changes in Runtime Behavior
 
Index: lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/BooleanScorer.java
===================================================================
--- lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/BooleanScorer.java	(revision 1056995)
+++ lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/BooleanScorer.java	(working copy)
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@
 
   // firstDocID is ignored since nextDoc() initializes 'current'
   @Override
-  protected boolean score(Collector collector, int max, int firstDocID) throws IOException {
+  public boolean score(Collector collector, int max, int firstDocID) throws IOException {
     boolean more;
     Bucket tmp;
     BucketScorer bs = new BucketScorer();
Index: lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/BooleanScorer2.java
===================================================================
--- lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/BooleanScorer2.java	(revision 1056995)
+++ lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/BooleanScorer2.java	(working copy)
@@ -280,7 +280,7 @@
   }
   
   @Override
-  protected boolean score(Collector collector, int max, int firstDocID) throws IOException {
+  public boolean score(Collector collector, int max, int firstDocID) throws IOException {
     doc = firstDocID;
     collector.setScorer(this);
     while (doc < max) {
Index: lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/ConstantScoreQuery.java
===================================================================
--- lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/ConstantScoreQuery.java	(revision 1056995)
+++ lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/ConstantScoreQuery.java	(working copy)
@@ -244,10 +244,8 @@
     }
 
     // this optimization allows out of order scoring as top scorer,
-    // TODO: theoretically this method should not be called because its protected and
-    // this class does not use it, it should be public in Scorer!
     @Override
-    protected boolean score(Collector collector, int max, int firstDocID) throws IOException {
+    public boolean score(Collector collector, int max, int firstDocID) throws IOException {
       if (docIdSetIterator instanceof Scorer) {
         return ((Scorer) docIdSetIterator).score(wrapCollector(collector), max, firstDocID);
       } else {
Index: lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/DisjunctionSumScorer.java
===================================================================
--- lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/DisjunctionSumScorer.java	(revision 1056995)
+++ lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/DisjunctionSumScorer.java	(working copy)
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@
    * @return true if more matching documents may remain.
    */
   @Override
-  protected boolean score(Collector collector, int max, int firstDocID) throws IOException {
+  public boolean score(Collector collector, int max, int firstDocID) throws IOException {
     // firstDocID is ignored since nextDoc() sets 'currentDoc'
     collector.setScorer(this);
     while (currentDoc < max) {
Index: lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/ScoreCachingWrappingScorer.java
===================================================================
--- lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/ScoreCachingWrappingScorer.java	(revision 1056995)
+++ lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/ScoreCachingWrappingScorer.java	(working copy)
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@
   }
 
   @Override
-  protected boolean score(Collector collector, int max, int firstDocID) throws IOException {
+  public boolean score(Collector collector, int max, int firstDocID) throws IOException {
     return scorer.score(collector, max, firstDocID);
   }
 
Index: lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/Scorer.java
===================================================================
--- lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/Scorer.java	(revision 1056995)
+++ lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/Scorer.java	(working copy)
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@
    *          this method.
    * @return true if more matching documents may remain.
    */
-  protected boolean score(Collector collector, int max, int firstDocID) throws IOException {
+  public boolean score(Collector collector, int max, int firstDocID) throws IOException {
     collector.setScorer(this);
     int doc = firstDocID;
     while (doc < max) {
Index: lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/TermScorer.java
===================================================================
--- lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/TermScorer.java	(revision 1056995)
+++ lucene/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/TermScorer.java	(working copy)
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@
 
   // firstDocID is ignored since nextDoc() sets 'doc'
   @Override
-  protected boolean score(Collector c, int end, int firstDocID) throws IOException {
+  public boolean score(Collector c, int end, int firstDocID) throws IOException {
     c.setScorer(this);
     while (doc < end) {                           // for docs in window
       c.collect(doc);                      // collect score
Index: lucene/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/JustCompileSearch.java
===================================================================
--- lucene/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/JustCompileSearch.java	(revision 1056995)
+++ lucene/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/JustCompileSearch.java	(working copy)
@@ -215,7 +215,7 @@
     }
 
     @Override
-    protected boolean score(Collector collector, int max, int firstDocID)
+    public boolean score(Collector collector, int max, int firstDocID)
         throws IOException {
       throw new UnsupportedOperationException(UNSUPPORTED_MSG);
     }