http://retrotranslator.sourceforge.net/ should help, if JDK 1.4 is an
absolute necessity.
By the way, in a recent (non-JSPWiki -related) developer meeting I
was participating in, a poll among all attendees showed that they are
primarily developing on JDK 6 (over 50%), then the rest were using
JDK 5 (which is 3.5 years old now). JDK 1.4 was only about one
percent of the participants, and nobody was using JDK 1.3 anymore.
I'd say that requiring JDK 5 is the conservative option in Java world
right now. E.g. Tomcat 6 requires JDK 5 already.
The way using JDK 5 is showing to the users is that the developers
are happier, and are able to produce better and more maintainable
code. Stripes will show up as vastly simplified templating and
clearer code base for any developer. Yes, and developers will be
happier, and since they are volunteers, it is very important to keep
developers happy.
(And, frankly, if the users don't care about JDK version, they should
not care if you upgrade to Java 5 either. Your argument makes no
sense. If software Y requires JDK X, then, if software Y is valuable
enough, they will install JDK X. If it is not, they will likely not
upgrade anyway, since the old version is already working. That's the
way it's always been. Installing a new JDK takes about five minutes
if you are an admin worth paying money for.
Besides, 3.0 is going to break compatibility, so any old stuff is
going to break anyway (templates, plugins, filters). So they're not
likely to upgrade to 3.x, in which case we don't have to care about
them.)
/Janne
On 12 Jan 2008, at 03:03, Murray Altheim wrote:
Hi Andrew,
It's not so much a matter of me liking it, it's that I'd not be
able to
use any JDK 5 code and would either be stuck in an old version much of
the way through 2008 or be forced to backport the newer code for
compatibility with 1.4 (which I frankly won't have time for), hence
it'd
effectively drop me from the project until I could begin making an
assumption of a JDK 5 environment.
And I should probably point out that while we as developers may be
hot for
JDK 5 or 6, users and admins aren't, and generally don't care. We
should
(without meaning to lecture) be really thinking of our target
audience,
not ourselves, when developing a product. I personally don't care
about
Stripes and I can absolutely guarantee that none of my users would
either,
even if they knew what it is. Going to JDK 5 will mean that any admins
installing JSPWiki who are bound in government or academic
environments
(such as what is constraining my own work) will simply not be able to
stay current with JSPWiki. That's much more of a tragedy than any
of us
not being able to take advantage of some new syntax features in
code. I've
always taken a very conservative approach to user environments, having
worked closely in them since the early 1980s.
IMO.
Murray
Andrew Jaquith (JIRA) wrote:
[ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/JSPWIKI-121?
page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-
tabpanel&focusedCommentId=12557900#action_12557900 ] Andrew
Jaquith commented on JSPWIKI-121:
----------------------------------------
I'd like to see us require Java 5, even in 2.8. I'm sure Murray
won't like that idea, though. :)
Rationale: in my Stripes-enabled 3.0 build locally (which I have
been serially patching and re-patching every few weeks to keep up
with HEAD), it would be nice to start putting in some of the
collection generics that will inevitably come when Java 5 is
implemented across the board in JSPWiki. I wouldn't mind getting a
head start, even if the Stripes stuff (which will be invasive!)
comes in 3.0.
Drop support for JDK 1.4.
-------------------------
Key: JSPWIKI-121
URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/
JSPWIKI-121
Project: JSPWiki
Issue Type: Task
Reporter: Janne Jalkanen
Fix For: 3.0
Since Java 6 has been out for a long time, it's time to move to
JDK 5. We already require JDK 5 to compile (due to some MBean
classes we are using), but JSPWiki 2.6 should also work on JDK 1.4.
However, JDK 5 does give us quite a lot of advantages,
programming-wise. It makes loops nicer, and generics and
annotations make life so much easier.
This shift is targeted to 3.0. In theory, we could start moving
to JDK 5 even earlier in 2.8, unless there's a large amount of
opposition. It's my understanding though that quite a few
companies are still running JDK 1.4.
--
......................................................................
.....
Murray Altheim <murray07 at altheim.com>
=== = =
http://www.altheim.com/murray/
= = ===
SGML Grease Monkey, Banjo Player, Wantanabe Zen Monk
= = = =
Boundless wind and moon - the eye within eyes,
Inexhaustible heaven and earth - the light beyond light,
The willow dark, the flower bright - ten thousand houses,
Knock at any door - there's one who will respond.
-- The Blue Cliff Record
