Dag H. Wanvik wrote:
Rick Hillegas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Would anyone object to our requiring that developers use a Java 5 or
later compiler to build Derby? I believe that we would still require
the presence of the 1.4 libraries and the expectation would continue
to be that the compiler must compile down to 1.4 classes.
AFAIK, that's not possible in the general case, cf tools like
Retroweaver http://retroweaver.sourceforge.net/).
Dag
You are right. The compiler won't let you compile from Java 5 source
down to 1.4 classes. We would not be able to use Java 5 features in our
old code. However, using the Java 5 compiler would make the following
possible:
1) Optional optimizations of engine code to take advantage of features
introduced by later VMs.
2) New tools which take advantage of extensions added in later versions
of Java. E.g., JMX-based tools--JMX is included in J2SE from version 5.0 on.
3) Tests which verify that user code, built under later versions of
Java, plays well when it runs inside Derby functions and procedures.
Thanks,
-Rick
