Java5 (was: Torque 4.0 plan)

[Thoralf Rickert <th...@cadooz.de>]

I don't have an idea of "how can we support JDK1.5 and JDK1.4" because of the compatibility problems between 1.4 and 1.5 - but I think like Thomas that we have to make a break. The next release of the JDK is on the way and we're still programing in the "old" 1.4. I don't want to start a principle discussion - I know that many developers cannot easily switch to a new JDK.
 
Currently we have the best solution for 1.4 and 1.5. If you change a switch and rerun the generator you have JDK1.5 compatible generated classes. Maybe there are some places in the templates that could be more Java5 compatible (foreach, generics, enums). But this would change the API very much and the underlying Torque-API uses still "just" JDK1.4. A new major release could be a good moment to think about this API changes. Removing Village means in any case that existing projects have to be reviewed before switching to Torque 4.0. 
 
The only disadvantage I can think about is, that projects that cannot switch to JDK1.5 don't have access to the new features that we plan to implement and we have to backport bugfixes to the 3.x tree if we find some in Torque. Because we cannot say "Switch to Torque 4.0 if you have a problem".
 
What about the Tomcat solution. They have a 5.0 tree for <Java5 system and a 5.5 tree for >=Java5 system. I don't know how they manage this, because this means they have two branches. Does somebody know how they do this?
 
Thoralf
 


________________________________

From: Thomas Fischer
 
[...]
>Problematic:
>
>- Use Java 5 style generics and enumerations. Java 5 code does not run on
>  jdk 1.4

[...]

>>You are right, I was not aware of this. So what do we do ? I'd guess most 
>>people will use java 1.5 by the time the new release is ready (I do not 
>>think less than a year's development time is realistic), but I'm also sure 
>>there are some users who cannot use Java 1.5. 

>>Supporting 1.5 in the generator is the minimum option (we have that 
>>already), but my original idea was to port the runtime and the other stuff 
>>as well. 

>>I'd guess if we do not do it in the step towards 4.0 we'll never make that 
>>transition. 

>>I'm undecided. Any opinions ? 

>>     Thomas 

[...]

________________________________

From: Jonathan Purvis....

>>>> - Use Java 5 style generics and enumerations. One can use compiler 
>>>> settings to produce pre-1.5-executable class files. 

>>>The autoboxing in 1.5 of int to Integer uses Integer.valueOf(int), 
>>>which doesn't exist in 1.4.  Also, javac won't let you: 

>>>  $ javac -target 1.4 Generic.java 
>>>  javac: target release 1.4 conflicts with default source release 1.5 

>>>  $ javac -target 1.4 -source 1.5 Generic.java 
>>>   javac: source release 1.5 requires target release 1.5 

>>>Could it be an option on the generator instead?