Hi Ludger, On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 8:22 PM, Ludger Buenger < [email protected]> wrote:
> Actually, I am somewhat reserved against moving to higher Java versions > without need. > > > There are a lot of applications dependent upon xerces which are already out > and running that depend upon certain Java versions and cannot be upgraded. > Therefore such a switch should only be made if there is cause that > justifies this (as there was in November[1]). Agreed. Such a change is going to affect lot of our contributors and users. So we need to be extra cautios and analyze all the possibilities and their outcomes. This discussion is to simply explore the possible migration strategies and gather some user/developer ideas on the subject, if we are ever going to make such a move. > > Developers usually prefer newer Versions so they can take advantage of new > flashy features however operation usually prefers to stick to older versions > as long as possible to reduce the impact a version change has upon up and > running applications and services. I agree with your point on developer mind set. However IMHO if we can migrate to the latest JRE version, while still providing support for our users on old JREs, then that's a great achievement. There are hundrerds of projects and systems that run on latest JRE versions. All the newly developed systems will run on new JREs. Such applications can surely harness the power of our improved code base. But the important thing is to keep supporting our users on old JREs. It's a bit tricky call and we are certainly going to have a pretty hard time finding a satisfactory solution to this :) Thanks, Hiranya > > Ludger > > > [1] http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/XERCESJ-1297 > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Mukul Gandhi [mailto:[email protected]] > > Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 2:03 PM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: Re: Xerces on Java 5 > > > > On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 1:03 PM, Hiranya Jayathilaka > > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > +1 to supporting Java 6. But first we need to decide on a migration > > strategy > > > which does not affect the Xerces users on Java 1.3. > > > > One possible strategy to migrate to JRE 1.5 could be, that we can use > > a tool like Retroweaver (ref, http://retroweaver.sourceforge.net/). > > > > We can develop future code of Xerces-J using Java 1.5 constructs, and > > use the Retroweaver utility to transform the 'Xerces JAR' developed > > using JDK 1.5 to another JAR, which can run on JRE 1.3 or 1.4. > > > > We can ship a JRE 1.5 JAR and say other JARs each for JRE 1.3 and JRE > > 1.4. > > > > We can probably do a small pilot to test the feasibility. I have > > learnt, that Retroweaver is a reliable utility, and is used in number > > of open source projects, where binary compatibility with earlier JRE > > versions is required. > > > > Unfortunately, Retroweaver currently doesn't support JDK 1.6 to > > 1.4/1.3 conversion. We need to use JDK 1.5. > > > > > > -- > > Regards, > > Mukul Gandhi > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > > > > > > -- > > This message was scanned by ESVA and is believed to be clean. > > Click here to report this message as spam. > > http://mailfilter.nc-sb.de/cgi-bin/learn-msg.cgi?id=2D47D27F21.665C8 > > > > -- Hiranya Jayathilaka Software Engineer; WSO2 Inc.; http://wso2.org E-mail: [email protected]; Mobile: +94 77 633 3491 Blog: http://techfeast-hiranya.blogspot.com
