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Now that Java 1.4.1 is the default JVM on OS X. It would be nice to have it as default for Eclipse too. Having 1.3.1 by default is a major drawback for people who want to use the 1.4 extensions for plugin development.
We will configure Eclipse to use 1.4.1 only after Eclipse depends on it. Right now Eclipse doesn't requires 1.4.1 and an out-of-the-box installation of MacOS X won't have 1.4.1 installed. Remember, you can develop for 1.4.1 even if you run Eclipse on 1.3.1. If you need to run Eclipse on 1.4.1, you can easily edit Eclipse's Info.plist file and change the -vm argument.
Changed priority back to P3 (bug reporters may change the "severity" but not the "priority" of a report).
Our problem is that we would like to use the 1.4 functionnalities in developing Eclipse Plug-ins! This would mean that the Eclipse should run in 1.4! The problem with the current configuration of the default Eclipse Platform for OS X mention specifically the 1.3.1 JDK... You could have used the CurrentJDK so that it would choose the default one on the machine. You could prevent of using 1.4 features for Eclipse Plug-ins, but in that case, it seems that you make a difference between OS X and i.e. Windows users for which I think the Java 1.4 is the default when using a default platform download.
I don't see a problem here: You can use "1.4 functionnalities in developing Eclipse Plug-ins" after changing your Info.plist file (and if you are willing to take the risk of potentially losing work when running into bug #30021). However, we don't automatically run Eclipse on 1.4.1 because we cannot take the risk of letting the user lose work. Yes, there is a difference between Mac OS X and Windows: Windows doesn't come with a Java VM, so there is no "default" VM that you can compare with the Mac's default VM. So a discussion about VM versions is moot. And Eclipse doesn't come with a VM either. From the Eclipse download page: "Eclipse does not include a Java runtime environment (JRE). You will need a 1.3 level Java runtime or Java development kit (JDK) installed on your machine in order to run Eclipse." As soon as Eclipse requires 1.4.1 we will configure Eclipse accordingly.
Our problem is that on OS X Eclipse is not taking the VM that is selected as "CurrentJDK". This means that if we ship a plugin, it makes a difference between OS X and Windows people. Windows users could use it without any changes if they have installed the Java 1.4.x JDK (which is the defacto standard on Windows this day)... but OS X users will have to change their eclipse Info.plist to be able to run our plugin. I hope that bug 30021 will be solved in some way in the near future and/or that Eclipse will need Java 1.4.1 soon because it's really a pitty that you prevent Java developers to use the standard JDK distribution to develop plugins. I'm not a guy who wants to always use the latest alpha version of a software, but Java 1.3 is not the default anymore! One latest world about your comment on the message on the download page... The dependence on JDK 1.3.1 is only for OS X... I didn't find any similar comment when downloading the Windows version...
The comment I'm refering to is on every download page, for instance here: http:// download.eclipse.org/downloads/drops/I-I20030718-200307181617/index.php: It's the last sentence before the list of platform downloads. It applies to all platforms and isn't confined to MacOS. Bug #30021 has been already fixed, so I could flip the switch from 1.3.1 to 1.4.1. However, since I cannot assume that everybody already has 1.4.1, I'll have to implement some logic that falls back if 1.4.1 isn't installed. Since Eclipse's requirement for 1.4.1 is imminent (M3), do you really want me to implement the logic for pre-M3 integrations builds?
We are very close to the delivery of our plugins, and it would be great that we could avoid the trouble of the configuration at the client site. So, this feature will be usefull for us as soon as it is implemented. Of course, it would be very nice to have it already in M3. If not, I hope to find it in M4... You are right when telling that you could not know if 1.4.1 is installed, but because Java package is installed by the Apple Update System, we may suspect that many machines already have 1.4.1 installed. The speed improvement was noticeable when switching from 1.3.1 to 1.4.1. So, even for people who does not really use the Java 1.4.1. language specific features, this switch will improve the global behaviour of Eclipse. Regards, Chris.
