A Twitter poll has been sent out too https://twitter.com/ApacheBeam/status/938926195910905857 However, due to limitations of Twitter it can only be open for 7 days. I encourage people who are late to the poll to comment on this thread instead.
On Thu, Dec 7, 2017 at 3:50 PM Eugene Kirpichov <[email protected]> wrote: > Followup: we would like to keep this poll open for 2 weeks, however some > people have expressed concern that this is too short. > Let us keep this poll open for 1 month starting today. So far the > agreed-upon decision has been to move forward with the plan if fewer than > 5% of all respondents choose option 3. > > On Thu, Dec 7, 2017 at 3:48 PM Eugene Kirpichov <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> This is a follow-up on a previous similar thread >> https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/2e1890c62d9f022f09b20e9f12f130fe9f1042e391979087f725d2e0@%3Cuser.beam.apache.org%3E >> in >> which the community consistently expressed support for transitioning Beam >> Java to Java8-only. >> >> Now that the release of Beam 2.2.0 has completed, we are considering >> performing this change specifically in the immediate next release: Beam >> 2.3.0, i.e. dropping support for Java 7 without a bump in the major version >> of Beam. >> >> The reasons for switching to Java 8 in general are considered in the >> thread above. >> The reasons in favor of making the switch in Beam 2.3.0 are as follows: >> - It is believed that usage of Java 7 in production is already >> vanishingly small. >> - Since Java 7 has not been receiving even security updates for years, >> helping perpetuate its usage would be a bad idea >> - A major version bump is a major step and would likely happen only after >> a large number of other major changes in Beam accumulate - i.e. many >> months. Maintaining Java 7 compatibility for that long would have costs, >> including the awkward possibility of switching Beam to Java 8 after Java >> 8's end of life (September 2018 AFAIK) >> - Updating to Java 8 would lead to Beam more quickly gaining more >> Java8-friendly APIs, because Beam SDK authors and contributors would have >> more liberty, more responsibility and more experience with working in the >> context of Java8. Delaying until Beam 3.0 would delay this as well. >> >> With that in mind, we'd like to poll the Beam community to gather >> information about usage of Java 7 and Java 8 in production. Please vote: >> >> Option 1. I am already using only Java 8+ for building my production Beam >> code. >> >> Option 2. I am using Java 7 for building my production Beam code, but I >> would have no trouble with the switch to Java 8 [e.g. my transition to Java >> 8 would be easy and/or I don't expect that I'll have strong reasons to >> upgrade to Beam 2.3 anyway]. >> >> Option 3. I am using Java 7 for building my production Beam code, and >> dropping Java 7 would be a blocker or hindrance to adopting the new release >> for me [e.g. I expect that I'll have strong reasons to update to Beam 2.3, >> but I expect that it will be difficult because of lack of Java 7 support] >> >>
