On Sun, 2004-11-14 at 19:36, Jeroen Frijters wrote: > Andrew Haley wrote: > > Make 1.5 bytecode a reqiurement for the 1.0 branch. > > I don't understand what you mean by this. Supporting 1.5 bytecode in the > VM is trivial, but we don't have any 1.5 source compilers yet, do we? > > I know Tom's working on gcjx, but AFAIK it isn't in a working state yet > and personally I'd like to have a 1.5 compatible version of Jikes too > before we move to using 1.5 language features. > > Regards, > Jeroen
It's not so much 1.5 language features as the API of 1.5. There are, as I see it, two categories of changes in 1.5: * Changes which involve generics, enums and the other stuff in 1.5 (e.g. the java.util collections). This is stuff that a pre-1.5 compiler will choke on, and is something that should stay in the generics branch for now. * Changes which are just additional classes or interfaces without the use of 1.5 language features. From looking at the docs, there are quite a few of these, to say the least. Even in java.lang, you have the addition of StringBuilder and methods to the Math class. These would be more suited to addition to the HEAD branch, as there they will get wider testing and development. The 1.5 language features largely disappear at byte-code level, as demonstrated by Tom's mail on adding compatibility. At a guess, I would say that the users of Java bytecode would outnumber those who compile it. Also, Java tends not to be compiled to bytecode on a per-user basis, in the way that C code would, because the non-native form makes this unadvantageous. I think it would give the Free interpreters, and the Free library that is GNU Classpath, a better position if they can handle bytecode from 1.5, even if Free compilers are not yet capable of creating it. Certainly, we will need the support in the long run, and the more well used and widely tested it is before this, the better IMO. -- Andrew :-) Please avoid sending me Microsoft Office (e.g. Word, PowerPoint) attachments. See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html "Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history. `Don't bother us with politics' respond those who don't want to learn." -- Richard Stallman "We've all been part of the biggest beta test the world has ever known -- Windows" -- Victor Wheatman, Gartner
signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part
_______________________________________________ Classpath mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/classpath
