Avik,
Even tho most committers, I believe, run 1.4 as their regular JVM's
these days, we've always tried to ensure that POI runs properly in a jdk
1.3 environment. Any 1.4'isms therefore are usually the result of
overlooking, rather than policy.
That is good to hear. I am fully aware that many developers tend to make use of Java 1.4 once they installed it as it is extremely easy to use that one particular parameter in some class that was freshly introduced in 1.4.x.
In the server space, however, it is not too uncommon to maintain a running application over a long period of time without too many updates to the base system. There are some production environments where we had to extend the application functionality without being able to upgrade the underlying JDK for various reasons, e.g. the resulting downtime, the efforts required for testing everything against the new JDK etc.
Personally, I've tried to occasionally compile and test in a 1.3 environment, to ensure we stay 1.3 clean. However, this is getting increasingly difficult to do, particularly for people running Linux for various reasons [1].
However, for server solutions, this is extremely helpful. Server applications tend exist for a long time and grow as much as they possibly can. Adding something like Excel text extraction does not fly well with the customer if it is the sole justification of a JDK upgrade along with the resulting tests and the downtime. Developers don't necessarily have to use a JDK 1.3.x to produce code that works on 1.3.x VMs.
However, I suppose keeping 1.3 compatibility is important for many of our users. So this mail is really to say that if running poi in JDK1.3 is important to you then:
1. Please say so
Done.
2. Someone please volunteer to compile and test latest CVS once in a while to ensure we stay 1.3 clean.
If you are willing to provide some newbie support once in a while ;-)
Ralph
--------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
