The lack of a Java 8 package in the standard repositories for Ubuntu 14.04LTS is definitely a big argument against 1.8. Andreas plan of doing 1.7 for next release and 1.8 for the one after sounds like a great compromise. The next Ubuntu LTS will come in April with Java 8 packages, so that will be a good timing for our move to 1.8 in the over-next release.
Jose On Wed, Jan 13, 2016 at 10:45 AM, Jan Stourac <[email protected]> wrote: > We are using Java 8 (because it is requirement of one library) in almost > all our projects, so I am fine with both 7 and 8. > > But even though I agree with the plan of upgrading, I would like also to > note the importance of checking java/openjdk packages available in the > repositories of popular distros... For example Debian 8 (current stable) or > Ubuntu 14.04 LTS still do not have Java 8 in standard repositories and it's > a hard question what is better version to force - Java 7 with no updates > from Oracle (but I think that RedHat still take care of OpenJDK 7) or Java > 8 with lack of support from some disto maintainers? > > Cheers, > Jan. > > > On 01/12/2016 01:16 PM, Spencer Bliven wrote: > > There has been some informal discussion of increasing the Java version > requirement for BioJava from the current Java 6 to either 7 or 8. It would > be great to hear from the larger BioJava community about whether this would > be a welcome change or not. > > I will start the discussion by listing what I see as the pros and cons of > setting each version as the minimum requirement for BioJava. > > Java 6: > --------- > + Greatest backwards compatibility > - No updates since Feb 2013 > <http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/eol-135779.html>* > - Some dependencies are not compatible, requiring the use of older > versions (currently only log4j, but could be others in the future) > > Java 7: > --------- > + Most popular > <https://plumbr.eu/blog/java/java-version-statistics-2015-edition> > version currently > + Some minor language features added > - No updates since Apr 2015 > <http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/eol-135779.html>* > > Java 8: > --------- > + Tons of awesome new programming features, e.g. lambda functions > + Only version supported by Oracle > - Not available for many systems > > * Note that all versions are backwards compatible, so you can always use a > more up-to-date JDK for downstream projects. Running outdated software is > generally a bad idea, so users are encouraged to use the Java 8 JRE, > regardless of the minimum BioJava requirement. > > > One thing I would like to get a sense of is how many BioJava users are > still using 6 and 7. @*emckee2006* mentioned on github > <https://github.com/biojava/biojava/issues/364#issuecomment-170710242> > that they still have some servers on 6. I know that getting Java 8 > installed on CentOS is rather painful, so probably some users haven't yet > updated to 8. > > Let me know if I missed anything! > > > Cheers, > > Spencer > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Biojava-l mailing list - > [email protected]http://mailman.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/biojava-l > > > > _______________________________________________ > Biojava-l mailing list - [email protected] > http://mailman.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/biojava-l >
_______________________________________________ Biojava-l mailing list - [email protected] http://mailman.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/biojava-l
