[#IZPACK-12] Target Java 5 instead of Java 1.4

IzPack

Target Java 5 instead of Java 1.4

Created: 19/Feb/08 09:24 AM Updated: 29/Feb/08 02:29 PM

Component/s:

Build, Compiler, Installer, Panels, Uninstaller

Affects Version/s:

None

Fix Version/s:

4.0.0

Time Tracking:

Original Estimate:

Not Specified

Remaining Estimate:

0 minutes

Time Spent:

35 minutes

File Attachments:

generification.patch (312 kB)

Description

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IzPack currently targets Java 1.4. It is becoming aging, yet still widely used in practice. In turn, Java 5 brings a lot of language and API improvements.

One problem that we have is that we cannot really make sure that IzPack is full 1.4-compatible as many of its developers work on Java 5 / Java 6 JDKs. Hence, there is a strong chance that we have occasionaly used method / classes that were not part of prior Java versions. This is very difficult to test and enforce.

The solution to this is to drop 1.4 compatibility in favour of Java 5, then use a backporting tool (e.g., http://retroweaver.sourceforge.net/ or http://retrotranslator.sourceforge.net/) for those that require Java 1.4 compatibility. This will allow us to use the new language and API enhancements brought by Java 5 while staying backwards compatible.

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Julien Ponge added a comment - 19/Feb/08 09:24 AM

The following are still open questions:

which backporting tool is best?
should we generate a Java 5 and a Java 1.4 IzPack, or advice people that require 1.4 compatibility to use a backporting tool afterwards?
in the latter case, should we include it in IzPack, so that the backporting tool could be run at the installer generation time?

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Julien Ponge added a comment - 22/Feb/08 07:43 AM

This is a first attempt at the generification of the code.

I submit it as a patch for review first.

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Julien Ponge added a comment - 29/Feb/08 06:50 AM

Backporting is not useful as we are already using many Swing Java 5-only classes and methods, meaning that IzPack has been effectively Java 5-only for a few releases...

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Julien Ponge added a comment - 29/Feb/08 06:52 AM

The project now officially targets Java 5.

Some work has been done to generify the code and support new language constructs (e.g., foreach loops) were useful.

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Julien Ponge added a comment - 29/Feb/08 02:29 PM

Closing resolved issues (they should not stay "resolved" but get closed)