FOP requires Java 1.2.x runtime or later. However, in my experience, I've found bugs in AWT font rendering (mainly with kerning) which is fixed with Sun Java 1.4.1 or later (actually ~1.4.0_03+ if I'm not mistaken) or IBM Java 1.3.0+.
In my case, we have some rather large users (one client processes 300,000+ pdfs and printouts per month) running FOP on AIX 4.3 running Java 1.3.0 (build 1.3.0, J2RE IBM), and I doubt my company can get them to switch. Thankfully, fop-0.20.4 works great for them, so it may be moot for them. However, while I should be able to get them to move to fop-0.20.5 after extensive testing, I'll have trouble getting them to upgrade their Java runtime.
Web Maestro Clay
On Jan 6, 2004, at 1:16 AM, Chris Bowditch wrote:
Glen Mazza wrote:
It's probably not *yet* time to set 1.4 as the JDK to code against for 1.0, but it probably wouldn't be much of a disaster if we did so either.
The main thing to bear in mind is that a few platforms dont support the later versions of Java. This will mean excluding those users from deploying FOP on their production servers and mainframes.
By the time 1.0 is release-ready, 90% will either be on 1.4 or will be upgrading to 1.4 along with the upgrade of FOP 0.20.x to 1.0. The remaining 10% can linger on 0.20.x for the few extra months they need.
I did a quick search of the archives and found the thread that decrees 1.1 will no longer be supported and the minimum JDK is 1.2. AFAICT 1.2 has never officially been dropped. It is an old/long thread, but it may be useful in making a decision here.
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=fop-dev&m=100106134012939&w=2
I'm not inclined to recode it (Finn's code anyway ;), and Peter has more important things to focus on as well. Let's concentrate on making that 90% of users overjoyed right now--and the other 10% in a few more months after that.
Its not a show stopper for me, but I think we should keep use of 1.4 specific methods to a minimum until we agree that 1.3 is dead.
Any other opinions, comments?
Chris
