Re: Extending IvyBuildList

[Steve Loughran <st...@apache.org>]

John Gill wrote:
> No Generics!!! It makes the code so much cleaner... I wonder how many
> developers are still stuck on 1.4 (Ivy/Ant/Maven users in particular)?
> 1.4is two version behind the latest now...


I think you may find that java1.5 generics actually dangerous in some 
places, as it doesnt do what you expect from a real generics system; its 
works than C++ and .NET's generics, let alone fancy things like ML. I 
know foreach loops are nice, and Iterable something to implement, but 
there is still something missing there.


Our work stuff is java1.4 in the core, some of the stuff 1.5 on the 
edges. we have a CI server building and testing under 1.4 to make sure 
all works, but cutting a release is still tricky as you cannot compile 
against existing classes which added more restrictive arguments in 
java1.5. For example, any method that took (Object) and then overloaded 
it with String in java 1.5, as the 1.5 code, even when built with the 
-1.4 options, will bind to the String implementation.

Next release, we move up to java1.5, although then we have to worry 
about 1.6 support in places too. Sigh.

-steve