John Gill wrote:
No Generics!!! It makes the code so much cleaner... I wonder how many developers are still stuck on 1.4 (Ivy/Ant/Maven users in particular)? 1.4is two version behind the latest now...
I think you may find that java1.5 generics actually dangerous in some places, as it doesnt do what you expect from a real generics system; its works than C++ and .NET's generics, let alone fancy things like ML. I know foreach loops are nice, and Iterable something to implement, but there is still something missing there.
Our work stuff is java1.4 in the core, some of the stuff 1.5 on the edges. we have a CI server building and testing under 1.4 to make sure all works, but cutting a release is still tricky as you cannot compile against existing classes which added more restrictive arguments in java1.5. For example, any method that took (Object) and then overloaded it with String in java 1.5, as the 1.5 code, even when built with the -1.4 options, will bind to the String implementation.
Next release, we move up to java1.5, although then we have to worry about 1.6 support in places too. Sigh.
-steve
