-1 Background: http://wiki.apidesign.org/wiki/Portability
Alternative: - I will maintain what ever needs to be maintained to keep JDK 8 CI tests running - From Apache NetBeans 19, the minimum JDK required to build and run the IDE will be JDK 11. - The minimum JDK to run and test the NetBeans Platform and modules up to VSCode & Jackpot remains JDK 8. - Usage of JDK11, JDK17, etc. API is possible in dedicated modules via http:// wiki.apidesign.org/wiki/AlternativeImplementation Justification: Writing in Java (a language designed to write once and run everywhere) greatly increases portability. However there is another axis hurting portability - the supported JDK version. Of course, should a library be widely used, it has to support as oldest JDK as possible. These days it is JDK8 - the primary reason being that Android supports JDK8 - as such, should a library aspire to be used on Android (as well as regular Java), it needs to stick to version eight. There's transitivity of non-portability - the portability of the final application cannot be bigger than portability of the least portable library used. This applies also to 3rd party dependencies a framework or library has: again their non-portability may negatively affect portability of such framework or library. Of course, writing portable libraries is harder. It requires more work from the API author, more self-control, more suffering. However such suffering is justifiable. There is usually a single API writer, but there are many users to it. What matters is to simplify and improve experience of those API users - own author suffering doesn't matter that much. > # Proposed policy > > * Apache NetBeans 18 will be the last release to support running the > platform on JDK 8. > > * From Apache NetBeans 19, the minimum JDK required to build and run > the IDE or platform will be JDK 11. > > * Future releases will take an "LTS-1" strategy for building and > running (and CI testing) of the IDE and platform. Three JDKs will be > supported at any one time - the current JDK, plus the previous two LTS > releases. eg. NetBeans 20 and 21 (Nov 2023 / Feb 2024) will support > JDK 11, 17 and 21. NetBeans 22 (May 2024) will support JDK 17, 21 and > 22. > > ## Background > > The Apache NetBeans IDE has officially required JDK 11 to build and > run since NetBeans 13 in March 2022. The platform (and unofficially > the IDE) have continued to support running on JDK 8 - all modules > requiring a higher JDK must currently be optional. Various tests have > continued on JDK 8. > > This situation is causing issues as workarounds must be found for > currently non-optional features that have dependencies or other > requirements for running on a higher JDK (eg. Maven indexing / Lucene > [1]). It's causing delays, complications and missed testing time in > integration of new features (eg. problems merging support for EE 10 > [2]). Supporting an increasing range of JDKs is causing increasing > workload, both for people and CI. Meeting the challenges of deprecated > (for removal) features in the JDK is also complicated by the > additional JDK requirements. > > ## Notes > > * Apache NetBeans users will continue to be recommended to use the > current or latest LTS JDK to run the IDE. The IDE will continue to > support users developing projects for/with JDK 8, for as long as > nb-javac and other dependencies allow. > > * This proposal specifically doesn't address when the default bytecode > level across the codebase is increased. This can happen when required, > but non-optional modules would be free to adopt the minimum JDK as > they need to. > > * Optional modules may continue to require a runtime JDK higher than > the minimum. Should it become necessary, build time optional modules > might be considered - eg. a build on the minimum JDK may exclude > modules that will not run on that JDK at runtime. > > * Some modules that are of independent use (eg. lookup, utilities, > etc.) might be nominated and advertised to continue JDK 8 support for > the time being. This is not expected to cover the runtime container as > a whole - https://netbeans.apache.org/tutorials/nbm-runtime-container.html > > * Once NetBeans 19 is released, the NetBeans 18 release branch could > be used to backport and release JDK 8 supporting fixes, subject to any > PMC members wanting to manage those releases. > > * The term "platform" is used in reference to the whole framework of > modules that we release (eg. via Maven), not just the platform > cluster. > > [1] https://github.com/apache/netbeans/pull/4999 > [2] https://github.com/apache/netbeans/pull/4692 > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@netbeans.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@netbeans.apache.org > > For further information about the NetBeans mailing lists, visit: > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/NETBEANS/Mailing+lists --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@netbeans.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@netbeans.apache.org For further information about the NetBeans mailing lists, visit: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/NETBEANS/Mailing+lists
