Important Announcement - Java 5.0

[Joe]

JavaOp 2.1.2 will be built against Java 5.0.

I'm tired of writing code based on 90's technology. iago agrees:

5:26:02 PM Me: Is it time to move forward from 1.4 yet?
5:26:09 PM [x86] iago: yes
5:26:13 PM [x86] iago: Go big or go home
5:26:25 PM [x86] iago: speaking of which, I need to call my financial guy, brb

This is your warning. If you're still using Java 1.4, upgrade.

[iago]

Why not go to 6? :)

[rabbit]

I think 6 is an RC beta alpha.

[iago]

As far as I know, Version 6 Update 16 is the current stable version. Sun's site says nothing about being a beta.

[Chavo]

Java 6 SE has been released for well over a year.  Java EE has stayed at 5 though, and I have no idea if it will ever move or what will happen with java as a whole considering the Oracle takeover, OpenJDK movements, and existing Java 7 efforts.  You won't care about/need any of the EE features Joe, so stick with 6.

[Joe]

k, 6. I'm currently running Java 5. :(. I'll see if I can't get 6 installed tonight.

[Sidoh]

Java 6 is not in beta or anything like it.  It's been the most recent release of Java for two and a half years (released in December, 2006).

[Camel]

There's nothing new in Java 6 that can't be used with 5-compatible binaries. You should target 5, because OSX users don't/can't* have Java 6 unless they've got Snow Leopard (maybe Leopard too, but definitely not Tiger), and if you do find yourself using any Java 6 APIs, wrap them in a try/catch block to handle NoClassDefFoundError. In my bots entirety, that is the only such instance of a Java6-only API I had any desire to use (and it doesn't even work very well!).

* OSX users do have the option to use OpenJDK, or other alternatives that are born of Linux and work only with X11. They look like shit, and nearly require a degree in CS to launch the program anyways.

[Joe]

Since I'm developing in Leopard, I think I'll stick with 5. I'm having a fun time parameterizing all the vectors anyhow. Maybe six will come in the future, but I think we need a few years to get people to upgrade to that.

I remember the reason we were stuck at 1.4 was for people with dedicated servers without 5 installed. I think that if that's still the case, it's half past time for a new host.

[Camel]

Considering Java 1.4 isn't maintained any more, and has several gaping security flaws, I'd say there's no justification whatsoever to target it.

Java 5 is still the industry standard target (see my previous post about 6's binary format having no new features), usually with source compatibility set to either 5 or 6, depending on the type of application.

[iago]

Considering Java 1.4 isn't maintained any more, and has several gaping security flaws, I'd say there's no justification whatsoever to target it.

Java 5 is still the industry standard target (see my previous post about 6's binary format having no new features), usually with source compatibility set to either 5 or 6, depending on the type of application.

No one's disagreeing.