Re: [epp-dev] Minimum BREE for EPP Neon

[Mike Milinkovich <mike.milinkovich@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 18/08/2015 11:19 AM, Oberhuber, Martin wrote:

Hi Eric, all –

 

Since I was part of the Eclipse Platform PMC decision moving to Java 8, I briefly wanted to mention some reasons for that decision:

 

-          Java 8 is available today on all major Platforms – including Linux-ARM for example – and by multiple JRE vendors. In terms of security fixes, it’s safer than Java 7 (TLSv1.2 for example is only enabled in Java 8 by default).

-          By the time Neon ships, Java 8 will be 2 years old (so one can’t call that bleeding edge J)

-          Finally, Java 8 introduces some interesting new language features which some contributors can’t wait using. This is a difference compared to Java 7 which just updated the libraries but not the language. It’s true we have to cater to users, but we also have to cater to the contributors. If the Eclipse Platform starts looking old-fashioned and lame (and forbidding new language features puts us at risk of looking so), we’d risk losing contributors (which the Platform really needs).

 

So, this decision was not about giving developers any toys, but it was carefully weighing in on the aspects mentioned above. While some (hopefully few) might struggle with this decision, we hope that the benefit outweighs the itches.

See also the Aug5 meeting notes here: https://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse/PMC

 

In addition to the good reasons that Martin, Dani, and others have outlined, I think that targeting Java 8 for Neon is the correct move for three additional reasons:

1. Migration to new Java versions happens faster on desktops than on servers. By mid-2016, I think it is safe to assume that the vast majority of desktops will be migrated.
   
   
2. The Oracle JDK is no longer making updates to Java 7 publicly available.  In other words, by targeting Java 7, we would be effectively helping only Oracle paying customers, or those who ignore security risks at their own peril. (In general, I think that this is a triggering event that we should watch for in the future.)
   
   
3. We will be in good company. Thanks to Dalibor Topic at Oracle, here is a sampling of other open source projects and communities that have committed to migrating to Java 8:
   

* Lucene (in version 6: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LUCENE-6722),
* Cassandra (3.0: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CASSANDRA-8168),
* Scala (2.12: http://www.scala-lang.org/news/2.12-roadmap),
* Spring (5.0: https://spring.io/blog/2015/08/03/coming-up-in-2016-spring-framework-4-3-5-0),
* JBoss Eclipse Tools: https://twitter.com/jbosstools/status/609359452811169792
* languagetool: https://twitter.com/languagetoolorg/status/592947304321196032
* OpenNMS: https://twitter.com/Java_RR/status/586159658189983744
* Play framework: https://twitter.com/jeanhelou/status/565873242817462272
* Ratpack: https://twitter.com/ratpackweb/status/514200501890457600
* Vert.x: https://twitter.com/fbricon/status/486900431931842560
* Wildfly 10: http://wildfly.org/news/2015/08/09/WildFly10-Beta1-Released/