In general with this in the past we have waited until a specific
version of Java has matured and is widely available across many
platforms in a stable state, and that it is commonly used.
With OFBiz our goal is not to be on the bleeding edge of what is
happening in the Java world, unless of course whatever is new has
enough of an impact on what we are doing that the downsides of early
adoption are well worth it. So far that hasn't happened with the JDK
stuff...
Java 1.5 has been around long enough and is widely enough supported
that we could probably more seriously consider moving to that now.
Jumping to 1.6 would probably be a bad idea as many platforms would
have a hard time with it initially (and multi-platform is a very
important part of why we use Java, one of many of course). Chances
are 1.6 will be out for at least a year before we require it.
-David
On Oct 3, 2006, at 3:07 PM, Chris Howe wrote:
I would opt for a wait and see from the Sun camp.
With 1.6 in Beta 2 and open source, it would be better
to write to 1.6 spec on new stuff. As I understand it
(which is ONLY from reading about it) 1.5 doesn't
offer any real benefit, but 1.6 is supposed to offer
better speed. And with the open source aspect, may
make for the opportunity for a specialized ofbiz java
environment.
--- Jacques Le Roux <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
Andrew,
I understand your position (indeed we have enough
problems to solve). Let's see what others think...
Perhaps a solution :
http://retroweaver.sourceforge.net/
Though if you have not the souce code and only jars
this is not a solution :(
What Sun says :
http://java.sun.com/javase/technologies/compatibility.jsp
(sources shouln'd be a problem)
Using release mechanism for such a change is surely
a good idea.
Yes it's a little bit faster, on POS it's
significant (I think because of the bug I reported
below)
Jacques
From: "Andrew Sykes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Jacques,
My concern would be that once you introduce these
features the code is
no longer going to compile unless you use 1.5
I remember there was a big problem for us between
1.3 and 1.4 because
the WorldPay libs we were using were not
compatible with 1.4.
Fortunately we were able to just continue using
1.3 for a while, but of
course that would have been a real problem if
there was suddenly
incompatible code.
I don't know of any issues like this with 1.5, but
I'd hate to discover
one 5 minutes before home time on a Friday! Hence
my cautious attitude.
Perhaps we could introduce a single 1.5 code
instance somewhere which
would enforce an upgrade. This would mean that we
could watch for
feedback on the ML for a while and offer an easy
fix for anyone who was
experiencing problems.
Alternatively perhaps it would be a good idea to
wait until the upcoming
release, then if someone has problems, they can
simply revert to that
release.
What do you think?
You make an interesting point about speed, I've
not run ofbiz with 1.5
yet - is it noticeably faster?
-Andrew
On Tue, 2006-10-03 at 11:40 +0200, Jacques Le Roux
wrote:
Hi Andrew,
My comments inline.
From: "Andrew Sykes"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Jacques,
What features do you have in mind?
C# like (notably foreach like loops but also
autoboxing, enum type and varargs)
For more please see :
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/language/index.html
Stuff like autoboxing and foreach loops would
probably reduce the
overall code size, but would also stop people
from using an older JDK.
Yes, one day or another we will have to do it
anyway, why waiting ?
It's not difficult to switch from 1.4 to 1.5.
They are some bugs solved (notably this one
which was annoying in POS (block debugging in
Eclipse, ok in NetBeans) :
http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6330496)
And last but not least it's faster :o)
Removing support for 1.4x might mean people's
proprietary modifications
or libraries cease to be compatible.
Yes that's might be a *problem*. Are you already
aware of such cases (or anybody else of course) ?
Are you suggesting this change for existing
code or new code?
I was thinking primarily at new code. When
refactoring old code (bug, improvements, etc.) 1.5
new features may be also used.
Jacques
On Tue, 2006-10-03 at 07:56 +0200, Jacques Le
Roux wrote:
Hi Developpers,
Now that JDK 1.5 is no longer a problem I
propose to vote on using 1.5 new features. What do
you think ?
Jacques
--
Kind Regards
Andrew Sykes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sykes Development Ltd
http://www.sykesdevelopment.com
