Hello folks,
I have recently posted to this list asking if dom4j is still
maintained. Unfortunately it is not actively maintained at the
moment, due to a lack of time from the main developers. This has
resulted in the facts that dom4j currently
- can't compile with Java 1.5 because of changes in the W3C DOM
API that
comes with Java 1.5
- does not support Java 1.5 generics which causes annoying
warnings when
integrating with with Java 1.5 projects (aside from the
traditional amount
of type-casting that we all got used to)
A friendly Sourceforge-user by name of Stefan Haustein (SF-ID:
haustein) has provided a patch offering a remedy to both of the above
problems by implementing the new W3C API as a dummy that throws
exceptions and by making the external dom4j API using generics. The
patch seems to work very fine and all the test-cases included with
dom4j run without a problem after applying it.
However, Eclipse still has a lot to say about the dom4j sourcecode:
approximately 1000 warnings including:
- usage of raw-types (non-generics) (~850 instances)
- unused variables, unnecessary type-casts and declared exceptions
never thrown (~60 instances)
- potential NPEs (~60 instances)
- and a few others
I volunteered to do a code clean-up to remove these problems. Maarten
is interested in this work and has kindly given me access to the
developer CVS and so I started looking at further details of the
project. I noticed a few things that I would like to discuss with you
before I start any work.
== Freezing 1.6.1 ==
There doesn't seem to be a CVS tag for dom4j 1.6.1 yet (the last tag
was for 1.4.1). In any case I suggest that the last release should be
tagged in CVS. That would then remain the official release for Java 1.4.
== Towards a new unstable release ==
After that, I would suggest that 1.6.1 (which has been stable for
over a year now) remains the preferred version for Java 1.4 and that
the next release is targeted at Java 1.5. (Mike Skells has mentioned
in a previous mail that even Java 1.5 projects can be integrated in a
Java 1.4 environment using retroweaver (http://
retroweaver.sourceforge.net/))
I suggest to aim only for an unstable release at the moment, as I
don't see anybody implementing the new W3C DOM API. So a new release
would only feature a cleaned up code, Java 1.5 support and possibly
modernized build environment (see below). But hey, I think that's
much better then doing nothing.
== CVS -> Subversion ==
Additionally I would personally like to switch the project over from
cvs to subversion. I have worked for a while on another Sourceforge
Project using CVS and there was often one or the other problem with
it, including that the devel CVS and anonymous CVS were not in sync,
that CVS got broken because some locks were not cleaned up, etc.
Essentially it's probably a matter of taste and my taste is in favour
of Subversion, because it's simply easier to use (uses http/https, no
need to manually tag binary files, etc)
== Maven and friends ==
There is a Maven 1.x project file in CVS along with some friends such
as files for Checkstyle, Jalopy and GUMP.
- How much are those still used?
- Is there a continous integration environment still running?
- I managed to convert some of the Maven 1.x project.xml to a
Maven 2 pom.xml.
How abound a switch to Maven 2?
- Does anybody really care about the ~10000 warnings that
Checkstyle produces?
- According to their website, Jalopy does not yet support Java
1.5. Is that a
problem for anybody?
== Dependencies ==
Time has moved on outside dom4j as well and there are updated
versions of the dom4j's dependencies:
- jaxen: 20050419.192021 => 1.1-beta-11
- xml-apis: well, they are part of Java 1.5 actually (see above)
- xerces: 2.6.2 => 2.8.1
- xalan: 2.5.1 => 2.7.0
- jsr173 (STAX): there is no jsr173 in the Maven2 repository, but
a stax-api 1.0
that works as a replacement (I suppose until somebody really
tries to use the
STAX code...). At least the build and test-cases all run.
I didn't check all the dependencies yet. What is the general opinion:
a) should we upgrade all dependencies to current versions to see
if dom4j runs
comfortably in a modern environment ?
- or -
b) should we only upgrade those dependencies that are no longer
readily available
from external sources?
- or -
c) should we do nothing at all here?
I'm personally for in favour of a) because I like to work in an up-to-
date environment.
Então, thank you very much for your attention. I'm curious for any
feedback.
Best regards,
Richard
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