On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 2:28 AM, Michael Glavassevich <mrgla...@ca.ibm.com>wrote:
> Gary, > > Gary Gregory <ggreg...@seagullsoftware.com> wrote on 07/08/2010 02:02:27 > PM: > > > Gary Gregory > > Senior Software Engineer > > Seagull Software > > email: ggreg...@seagullsoftware.com > > email: ggreg...@apache.org > > www.seagullsoftware.com > > > > > > From: Michael Glavassevich [mailto:mrgla...@ca.ibm.com<mrgla...@ca.ibm.com>] > > > Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 10:33 > > To: j-us...@xerces.apache.org > > Cc: general@xml.apache.org; j-...@xerces.apache.org > > Subject: Re: [POLL]: Dropping JDK 1.3 support for Xerces-J? > > > > Hi Jake, > > > > "Jacob Kjome" <h...@visi.com> wrote on 07/08/2010 12:58:49 PM: > > > > > I have a library I develop (XMLC [1]) that depends on JDK1.3 and > > also depends > > > on Xerces. That said, part of the reason of depending on JDK1.3 is > > > to stay in > > > line with the Xerces dependency on JDK1.3. The other reason is > > thatJDK1.3 is > > > free and clear of any built-in XML APIs, which allows me to include > exactly > > > the JAXP library of my choice (xml-apis.jar) without worry of > compile-time > > > binding to odd invalid APIs included in 1.4 (such as some stuff > > meant for the > > > HTML2 API that got placed in the HTML1 API DOM package namespace). But > if > > > Xerces decides to move to a later version of Java, then I will > > probably move > > > XMLC right along with it. > > > > > > That said, I would think that if Xerces were going to bother > > making a move at > > > all it would move to JDK1.5 rather than bother with 1.4. Xerces 2.10 > is > > > always there for 1.3 and 1.4 codebases, which should all be well into > > > maintenance mode meaning few, if any, library changes. > > > > It's often not a choice but a constraint of the environment the > > developer is working in, having to write a new application on top of > > a product stack which is stuck on one of these earlier JDK releases. > > JDK 1.4 isn't dead yet; still in service for some vendors, including > > Oracle/Sun if you're a business willing to pay for the support. Not > > aware of any vendors supporting JDK 1.3 anymore though. > > > > > Moving to 1.5 would > > > allow Xerces to take advantage of all the new language constructs added > in > > > 1.5, as well as APIs added in 1.5 (e.g., StringBuilder -vs- > StringBuffer). > > > > Right. We all talked about the benefits of moving up even higher to > > Java 5 and 6 before, but have been quite conservative about > > upgrading because of where we are in the food chain. > > This seems like some harsh handcuffs for Xerces to live with. If an > > app is stuck on Java 1.3, is it also evolving and keeping up with > > Xerces versions and new XML and XML Schema standards? > > I think you missed my first point. > > > > As argued above, you can always use Xerces 2.10, forever. Why not lose > > the shakles? What about getting started on Xerces 3.0 with a 6 > > requirement and maintain Xerces 2.x on Java 3 with critical bugs > > fixes only? And say “Welcome to the 21st century J” > > Sure, that's technically possible but I think it's too early to be jumping > directly up to 6. Not sure there are many ASF projects which would even > bundle a Java 6 only Xerces release today. Plus I can't think of anything > Xerces would even use that's Java 6 specific. java.util.ArrayDeque maybe? > but that's hardly a compelling reason to do it. > I think most Java projects around are still on JDK 5. So I think JDK 5 is a more suitable target at this point. Thanks, Hiranya > > > Gary > > > > > > > So, +1 for changing JDK dependency in general, but I would prefer a > move > > > straight to JDK1.5+ skipping JDK1.4 support. This also seems to be > > > what a lot > > > of Apache commons libraries are doing, so it's certainly not > unprecedented. > > > > > > [1] http://forge.ow2.org/projects/xmlc/ > > > > > > > > > Jake > > Thanks. > > Michael Glavassevich > XML Parser Development > IBM Toronto Lab > E-mail: mrgla...@ca.ibm.com > E-mail: mrgla...@apache.org > > -- Hiranya Jayathilaka Senior Software Engineer; WSO2 Inc.; http://wso2.org E-mail: hira...@wso2.com; Mobile: +94 77 633 3491 Blog: http://techfeast-hiranya.blogspot.com
