Daniel John Debrunner wrote:
Rick Hillegas wrote:
Daniel John Debrunner wrote:
What's the benefit of requiring Java SE 6?
It will help prevent people from accidentally breaking the build or
regression testing of the JDBC4 drivers.
Somehow I think there will be enough folks scratching that itch
without forcing it on everyone.
I'm concerned that if we require it then development shops that
haven't switched to Java SE 6 yet won't be able to compile Derby.
Just because it's available doesn't mean everyone can or is willing
use it. Lots of places are not allowed to download anything they
feel like from the web and use it, they have controlled environments.
Dan.
How about a transition period? Perhaps we should wait a month after
Java SE 6 goes GA and then poll the community to see if anyone
objects to requiring Java SE 6 at that time?
I'm worried that we are narrowing the pool of potential developers
when I think we still want to grow the community. From this blog entry
it seems even in Feb 2006 most Java developers were using JDK 1.4.
Somehow I don't see a sudden jump to Java SE 6 one month after it goes
GA.
http://www.weiqigao.com/blog/2006/02/18/new_toys_in_jdk_6.html
Interest in jdk 1.3 died off a long time ago I suspect, but we've been
requiring 1.3 libraries in order to build Derby. This was the model I
had in mind. I agree that we narrow the pool of potential developers by
putting more hurdles in the way of an engineer's first build. I don't
think we've made the situation worse by swapping out 1.3 and swapping in
Java 6.
Sure we can discuss it early next year, but I don't see any benefit,
the JDBC 4 drivers will continue to work if they are optional build
components, just like they and the JSR169 & OSGi optional components
do today. If they break back out the commit or supply a fix, no big deal.
Dan.
I don't think I would compare JDBC, which is one of our key standards,
to the optional small device and OSGi support.
It would be nice to require one of the recent compilers (Java 5 or 6) so
that developers can start using generics, enums, etc.. I also think
there is some advantage to standardizing the build environment. I think
it will give rise to less confusion. I think that Java 6, which includes
generics and JDBC4 is a better candidate for a standard environment than
Java 5, which lacks JDBC4.
Regards,
-Rick
