Return-Path: Delivered-To: apmail-jakarta-ant-dev-archive@apache.org Received: (qmail 26333 invoked from network); 13 Jul 2002 21:41:59 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO nagoya.betaversion.org) (192.18.49.131) by daedalus.apache.org with SMTP; 13 Jul 2002 21:41:59 -0000 Received: (qmail 27135 invoked by uid 97); 13 Jul 2002 21:42:16 -0000 Delivered-To: qmlist-jakarta-archive-ant-dev@jakarta.apache.org Received: (qmail 27118 invoked by uid 97); 13 Jul 2002 21:42:15 -0000 Mailing-List: contact ant-dev-help@jakarta.apache.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Help: List-Post: List-Id: "Ant Developers List" Reply-To: "Ant Developers List" Delivered-To: mailing list ant-dev@jakarta.apache.org Received: (qmail 27106 invoked by uid 98); 13 Jul 2002 21:42:14 -0000 X-Antivirus: nagoya (v4198 created Apr 24 2002) content-class: urn:content-classes:message MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Subject: Why stop at JDK1.2? Only semi-serious question... X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.0.5762.3 Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 22:41:57 +0100 Message-ID: X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: Thread-Topic: Why stop at JDK1.2? Only semi-serious question... Thread-Index: AcIqth+NRo9zUg3ZTQ+Sl+c2Vn/CQQ== From: "Jon Skeet" To: "Ant developers (E-mail)" X-Spam-Rating: daedalus.apache.org 1.6.2 0/1000/N X-Spam-Rating: daedalus.apache.org 1.6.2 0/1000/N All this discussion about whether or not to drop JDK 1.1 support has just got me thinking: why stop there? Just as almost everyone has a Java2 version of the JDK, doesn't almost everyone have 1.3+ ? Don't jump on me at once: I know not everyone has. However, I don't know how large that divide is, nor do I know how much benefit requiring 1.3+ would give us. I just think it's worth asking the question *now* rather than waiting until there's a situation which would be easier to handle in 1.3. I suspect the answer is that there's not a lot that 1.3 gives us that 1.2 doesn't, in terms of API. Here's what the 1.3 "Summary of New Features" list has: o JNDI (probably irrelevant to the core) o RMI (ditto) o Various client-only things such as Swing, AWT, Java Sound etc enhancements o Security (probably not an issue?) o Networking (probably irrelevant to the core) o Reflection enhancements (dynamic proxy classes - these have always struck me as cool, but I've never actually used them. I don't know how to predict whether or not they'd be useful to Ant.) o Serialization (I try to avoid this in general, and I suspect Ant doesn't need to use it) o Collections framework enhancements - nothing huge, as far as I can see o Enhancements in java.{util,math,lang} - as far as I can see, only java.util.Timer is likely to be particularly useful to Ant, and can be reasonably easily implemented by us anyway, I'm sure. o JPDA (Java Platform Debugger Architecture) - More likely to be useful for extra tasks, I'd have thought (I hadn't considered using Ant in the context of a debugger before - might think about that some more...) o Tool and performance changes are irrelevant to the core of Ant, I suspect I can't see anything particularly compelling in the above, but if I've missed anything, do let me know. On the other side of things, what platforms are there which make it difficult to get 1.3 compatibility? gcj is the first "suspect" as it were, but that's a mere guess from someone who's never used it... Just some random Saturday night musings, anyway. Jon -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: For additional commands, e-mail: