Re: Java 1.4

From: Lew <noone(at)lewscanon(dot)com>
To: pgsql-jdbc(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: Java 1.4
Date: 2012-01-22 18:59:43
Message-ID: jfhmb0$i8h$1@news.albasani.net
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On 01/22/2012 09:46 AM, Kevin Grittner wrote:
> John Lister<john(dot)lister-ps(at)kickstone(dot)com> wrote:
>
>> I noted from the recent NIO thread that support for Java 1.4 was
>> checked. I know from previous discussion that this has been
>> brought up, but was wondering if there was a reason for still
>> supporting 1.4? I therefore wondered if it is still worth while
>> supporting something released nearly 10 years ago and nearly 8
>> years since its last update and not freeze a version for that
>> release (except maybe security related updates). Similarly would
>> it be wise to freeze the jdbc 2& 3 updates as well since they
>> require Java 1.4 and concentrate on jdbc 4 support and maybe Java
>> 1.5 (or even 1.6) and the additional features?
>>
>> With that, I'll leave it open to the floor to discuss...
>
> JDK 1.5 was released in September of 2004, entered its end-of-life
> phase in April of 2008, with support dropped in November of 2009.
> JDK 1.6 was released in December of 2006 and is mature and still
> supported. JDK 1.7 was released six months ago and might not be
> considered mature enough for everyone yet.
>
> I really don't see the point of supporting anything so archaic as
> JDK 1.4. The old jars are still there for anyone who is stuck at
> that level for some reason.
>
> JDK 1.5 is a little more borderline; newer versions have only been
> available for five years, and it has only been completely out of
> support with the vendor for a little over two years. With those

"The" vendor? There are more than one.

> numbers, it would be hard for someone to really find fault with the
> project for not producing new driver versions. On the other hand,
> JDK 1.5 entered its end-of-life phase when the latest major release

One vendor's version did.

> of PostgreSQL was 8.3, and went completely out of support when the
> latest major release of PostgreSQL was 8.4 -- PostgreSQL releases
> which won't hit EOL for another year or two.

There is still support for Java 5, and indeed many shops are still using it or
even only just switching over to it.

It all depends on whom you pay for support.

> Perhaps the litmus test should be whether there is still a supported
> major version of PostgreSQL which was released while the Java
> version was still supported? Such a test would have us dropping
> support for JDK 1.4 now, but still supporting JDK 1.5 until July of
> 2014.

Perhaps that "litmus test" should take into account the many different
versions of Java out there, the many different systems still running Java 5
and earlier, and understand that there is still a business need for support
for versions that might seem old to people imagining that there is only one
vendor, one version, one marketplace for Java. One of the largest markets for
JDBC, if not the largest, is enterprise Java, where the versions lag far
behind the naive presentation based only on Sun's core Java support schedule.

--
Lew
Honi soit qui mal y pense.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Friz.jpg

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