Hi, I think if a new maven/gradle/ant project is created, it should use mainline technology, without to much fuzz. I estimate, that the OpenJDK javac has a high enough bus-factor, that it should be save, even if one or even multiple of the big players (Oracle, Red Hat, Azul, Amazon, Microsoft) decide to drop the ball. I doubt that about the frgaal fork.
A backporting compiler will always be a compromise what it can support and even the frgaal page admits that. There are developers out there, that already struggle with Java on the normal JDK, with a backporting compiler it will even be harder to explain them , why their code broke. I imagine discussions like: "Yeah frgaal can do X, but Y is not supported. You should also be aware, that feature Z is only half there! Oh and features A, B and C are API/JDK level, so no, you won't get them either." Experienced developers, that can understand the implications, can trivially switch to frgaal or ecj and benefit from their advanced features. The change to the pom proposed in PR-4682 switches the compiler plugin for maven, which is also documentated in the frgaal documenation and takes about 10 seconds to copy. Another point: Java 8 or 11 syntax is not that bad. Yes multiline strings are nice, yes enhances switch syntax is nice, but in my mind they are not a reason to risk creating incompatible code. Greetings Matthias Am Mittwoch, dem 05.10.2022 um 19:47 +0200 schrieb Jaroslav Tulach: > Hi. > Recently I brought [Frgaal retrofit compiler](http://frgaal.org) to your > attention again. There was a [PR-4682](https://github.com/apache/netbeans/ > pull/4682) and then a discussion in the thread about (not) supporting ecj in > NetBeans: https://lists.apache.org/[email protected] - thank > you for your comments. > > It all boils down to a simple question: Shall NetBeans try to improve > shortcomings of the JDK? > > I have recently given a talk [Forget/Ignore Kotlin, use Java19](https:// > www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua-8ySwFgqg). There is a slide describing the > benefits > of Kotlin around 5th minute. Clearly the fact that the Kotlin language > quickly > evolves and still can be used to generate JDK8 code is a huge benefit. > > Frgaal (described around 25 minute) can do the same. It has been modeled to > mimic the Kotlin model: > - language specification independent of the JDK > - compiler version specified as part of project build script > > Moreover Frgaal is 100% compatible with future Java language specification - > easy to drop it after switching to newest JDK. Overall it is way easier to > adopt latest Java thru Frgaal than trying to switch to a completely new > language. Why do I have to explain it again and again? > > NetBeans can support Frgaal without any problems as it is also (just like nb- > javac) a member of the Javac family. All these compilers generate exactly the > same errors and provide the same WYSIWYG experience. Same errors in the IDE, > same on the command line, same on the CI. > > All that is needed is: We have to realize that "innovation happens elsewhere" > and make Java better than the one produced by the JDK team! > > Anyone has guts to follow better-than-JDK vision? Then let me integrate > Frgaal > into NetBeans and bring the latest Java language features to users of older > JDKs. > -jt > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > > For further information about the NetBeans mailing lists, visit: > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/NETBEANS/Mailing+lists > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] For further information about the NetBeans mailing lists, visit: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/NETBEANS/Mailing+lists
