Ferdinand Soethe wrote:
Sorry, I completely missed that response in the flurry of postings.
David Crossley wrote:
I have similar concerns. Using 1.4.0 sounds very risky.
However we could not expect everyone to use the most recent 1.4.x
So would a compromise of 1.4.1 be the most sensible?
I disagree. For several reasons:
I disagree with your disagreement ;-)
I would prefer to see us test on 1.4.0 but since I'm not doing the
release process I'm happy with 1.4.1 if it makes your lives easier (it
actually makes mine harder as I don't have 1.4.1, I have 1.4.0 and
1.4.2, but not 1.4.1).
1. If we test against anything other than the most recent fix version
of Java we might have to develop fixes for problems that have
already been solved by the Java folks.
Minor releases of Java are intended to be backward compatible, we have
to go with the assumption that they are.
In addition, Forrest is developed and used in many different versions (I
have clients in 1.4.1, 1.4.2 and 1.5.0 environment, I am sure many other
devs use it in multiple environments too. In other words it is being
tested all the time in different environments. The testing in the
release process is just a little more rugged.
2. Installing the latest Java fix might solve
problems with other Java software and close up some security holes, so
people would benefit in more than one respect.
You must understand that Forrest is used in production environments
where upgrading Java is not a trivial thing. If we insist on "the
latest" fix version we will be preventing people from upgrading to
Forrest 0.7.
In other words, Forrest is not that important to users that they will
spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars/euros/pounds upgrading their
environment for it.
3. Using the latest fix is usually the common denominator for all
software using common layers like Java.
That is not my experience. If that was the case we would be using Jave
1.5, but the reality is that most companies are always at least pne
major release behind the curve because major releases usually introduce
bugs. I even have a client still on Java 1.2.2 (not using Forrest though).
So short of knowing that the latest fix has such a big problem, I'd
suggest to test against that unless somebody comes up with more good
reasons why not to.
I'm -1 on testing any later than 1.4.1, my resons are above. Like all
veto's I'll remove it under community pressure and good argument, but
none of those presented above are strong enough for me at this time. Soryy.
Ross
