RE: JDK 1.5 support?

[Andrew John Hughes]

On Thu, 2004-07-01 at 19:05, David Holmes wrote:
> I don't think it would be easy for Classpath to try and partially adopt the
> 5.0 features. The Collections may be one area where it is possible though.
> But please lets get to an actual release that supports *one* of the platform
> versions completely before you start working on the 5.0 stuff.
> 
> David Holmes
> 
> 
I agree up to a point.  Certainly, there is no need for 5.0 support yet
because it is still beta.  I think we need to start thinking about it
though, before we get even further left behind.
What level are we working to at present? 1.4?  Is it even possible to
get full support for 1.0 through 1.4?  Even if it is, I doubt 1.5 would
join this list, because of the Collections changes.  Even if binaries
are compatible, I think there would be problems with stuff using things
like java.util.List instead of List<T> (correct me if I'm wrong here).
From looking at the comparisons done with japitools, there are still
little niggles even in the early versions, but a lot of this is I guess
because things like constants may have changed values between versions. 
It would be nice to have some kind of formal decision on what version we
are working towards (my apologies if I missed this somehow).

Looking on to 1.5 becoming mainstream, we have to ask ourselves whether
we continue trying to cover every area of 1.4 or start looking at
allowing applications using 1.5 to compile, period.  A lot of the 1.5
stuff is pretty low-level basic stuff (collections, java.lang stuff)
while the main stuff missing from Classpath now, I think, is still
pretty high-level (javax mostly).  The working Eclipse demonstrates this
-- not using Swing lets it get away with quite a bit.

If we don't have some 1.5 support, we risk the problem of not being able
to compile Java applications that use the new language features of 1.5,
because the support in these basic classes is missing.  The collections
framework is pretty finished in Classpath, AFAICS, so it makes sense to
at least add 1.5 support here, even though some of the graphics stuff is
still only matching really early versions.  Java is heavily used in
things like servlets and other server-side stuff that doesn't need this,
but will be using the generic-based collections once Java developers
start porting code to 1.5.  They are already talking about things like
1.5 support for Ant, for example, so its something we need to be at
least thinking about.  As a new developer to Classpath myself, I think
it also gives a clearer work area for hackers to join us.  Rather than
patching up someone else's code, there is something new to work on. 
Like it or not (I know I don't), people tend to take more to working on
something new, than patching up other's code, even if it means we have
lots of half-done stuff.  The choice is really between having the full
depth of 1.4, or a wide breadth of Java support that includes 1.5, and I
think the latter would see Classpath getting more widely used.
> 
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-- 
Andrew :-)
 
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