Support Mac OS or current Java platforms?

[Joel]

Hi all,

Bert has informed me that the Java version used in Braille Utils (1.6)
is not supported by all (current?) Mac OS versions. The question is:
Should we downgrade Braille Utils to Java 1.5 in order to support the
versions of Mac OS that does not support the current version of Java,
or should we leave it to effected Mac OS users to demand a current
version of Java for their platform?

While I support the cause that as many people as possible should be
able to use the software, I also feel that a platform that does not
maintain Java support cannot be supported by a Java project - at least
not in the long run. Also, downgrading to 1.5 may only partly solve
the problem as Apple has announced that Java support has been
deprecated, meaning that it could be removed altogether from Mac OS in
future versions. This does not, however, imply that Java will not run
at all on future versions of Mac OS, only that Apple will not develop
or ship Java as part of the OS. If so, other solutions that may appear
will surely support 1.6 or later versions of JVM.

What do you think? How do other Java projects handle this issue?

Best,
Joel

[Saju Sathyan]

Hi Joel,
I think being an open source project, it is best to let the user of Mac systems to decide what to do!!! whether they want to install other JVM's on Mac. I am sure there will be JVM's for Mac available. Downgrading the work will remain as a bottle neck for future developments. It would be easy to put a requirment notes along with the development release stating the Mac platform requirements and how they can install the utilities. That is just my thought on the issue.

regards,
Saju

Original Message -----------------------

[Bert Frees]

Hi Joel and Saju,

You have some good points. I'm also not really in favour of downgrading
to 1.5, I just wanted to bring up the issue. Would it be a good idea to
check for the jre version and throw exceptions when a function cannot be
executed (just thinking aloud)?

Bert

[Joel]

Hi everyone,

I talked with Romain today (one of the lead developers of Pipeline 2).
He said that their current standpoint is to continue with Java 1.5.
While he does not oppose moving to 1.6, he said that it depends on the
"availability on OpenJDK on the 3 major platforms". This seems a bit
too uncertain to ignore since one of the main goals of this project is
to integrate with Daisy Pipeline. I feel this could tip the scale
towards 1.5. If we are going to move back to 1.5, I would prefer to do
it before the first release (in part because that would mean that I
can reintegrate Braille Utils with Pipeline 1, which has a scheduled
maintenance release soon), so let me know as soon as possible if you
have any thoughts about this.

/Joel

[Joel]

Hi everyone,

I am moving the code back to 1.5 then. This solves the MacOS issue,
and will improve compatibility with Daisy Pipeline and Open Office in
general (as I understand it).

Best,
Joel