I also agree to the upgrade and reduce the burden from supporting older java versions, Java is moving faster now and brings new features that are also good to have in GWT world, so focus in supporting those feature rather than supporting very old java versions.
On Thursday, April 25, 2019 at 7:31:36 PM UTC+3, [email protected] wrote: > > Hi all, > > 3½ years ago, we announced 2.8.0-beta1 and that it now required JDK 7, and > that started quite a long discussion: > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/google-web-toolkit-contributors/TzsINiDf5xg/discussion > A few days ago, there's been renewed interest into upgrading the Jetty > version GWT is using (for reasons I don't support, but that's orthogonal to > the point): https://github.com/gwtproject/gwt/issues/9606 > Upgrading Jetty however means requiring JDK 8; and *we have people > volunteering to do this work*. > > We're in April 2019, Oracle just gave the keys of OpenJDK 11 updates to > RedHat, them already being the stewards for OpenJDK 8 and 7. > JDK 6 is dead and buried (Oracle's extended support ended last December, > and it looks like even Azul Systems –the company that, to my knowledge, > sells the longest support– no longer provides paid support for OpenJDK 6 > either) > OpenJDK 7 will receive free updates for only one more year (June 2020), > though some vendors will provide paid support 'til 2022 (e.g. Azul, even > providing "passive" support –whatever it means– 'til 2024); for Oracle JDK > 7, Oracle's Premier Support will end in July this year (tick tock tick > tock), and extended support will last 'til 2022. > OpenJDK 8 will receive free updates until June 2023 (4 years from now, > almost the same time that has passed since 2.8.0-beta1, just sayin') > For people sharing code with Android, correct me if I'm wrong, but latest > tooling improvements (D8 > <https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/d8>) mean that you can > use libraries targeting JDK 8 even on older Android devices (basically, D8 > integrates retrolambda into the Android toolchain), so *even Android is > no longer an excuse.* > > *Maybe it's time to switch to JDK 8 as the new baseline for GWT*: by the > time we release a 2.9 (who knows when), OpenJDK 7 will only have months to > go (tick tock, 14 months from now). > > Fwiw, my reasoning for mostly/only caring about free updates to the JDK > are: > > - AFAICT, GWT receives no money. Some companies (possibly?) dedicate > time for maintaining GWT, but it mostly runs on the free time and free > will > of a few people (I wouldn't even count myself in any longer) > - Companies that run those older JDK versions likely pay for support. > If they have money for that, they can also build their own version of GWT > that still supports those older JDK versions (either adapting the most > recent GWT version to bring compatibility with older JDKs, or backport > fixes to older GWT versions). > - Companies that run older JDKs without paying for support, besides > being crazy (particularly if their servers are exposed on the Internet), > can IMO live with older GWT versions too (for JDK 7, in a year from now, > that'll still include GWT up to 2.8.2, the current latest release) > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GWT Contributors" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/google-web-toolkit-contributors/f99fc0f7-d15a-473b-93e1-1583b95410aa%40googlegroups.com.
