"Dropping support for Java 8 (tentative)" (Breaking changes for Jaybird 5)

[amolna...@gmail.com]

Hi Mark!

Please don't throw out Java8 support. Java8 will be alive still for many years, most customer still uses softwares after EOL.

Thank you!

PS: Is there a place for voting?

PS2 : JOOQ still support even Java7, Java6 was just dropped.

[Mark Rotteveel]

As things look right now, Jaybird 5 will still support Java 8, but maybe
I need to revisit that if and when finalization gets removed from Java,
or if the next Jaybird version takes years to get out of the door.

That is also why it is marked as tentative, "depending on the actual
release timeline" and "This decision is not final yet.". Given the
release history of Jaybird, some times there can be years between
versions (e.g. 2.1.6 to 2.2.0 was something like 6 years, in between
Java 6 and 7 where released), so announcing certain things tentatively
is a way to manage expectations a bit.

As to voting, there is no issue to vote on, but posting here with
objections counts as a vote against.

Even if I would remove Java 8 support in Jaybird 5, you would still be
able to use Jaybird 4 with Java 8, with possibly a longer term support
for bug-fixes and maybe minor feature additions to Jaybird 4. I would
guess that customers with bad update/upgrade hygiene, will likely also
stick to older versions of other things ;).

As I also mentioned somewhere a few years ago when I removed Java 6
support (or maybe it was Java 5), sometimes I need to make a decision to
keep things manageable or motivating for me, as maintaining Jaybird is a
hobby, not a paid job (I do receive a small grant from the Firebird
Foundation, but, though nice, that is peanuts compared to commercial
wages). Keeping Java 5 and 6 support was a lot more painful though, but
having to keep things around for a long time or not being able to use or
support newer language features can be quite a drag and less fun. Don't
take this as a threat or doom-prophecy, but worst case this type of
decision can be the difference between getting new major versions only
supporting newer Java versions, or not getting new versions at all
because I lost motivation.

As to jOOQ, that is a project which also has a commercial revenue
stream, which brings along different motivating factors to keep
supporting older Java versions. However, have you noticed that the
open-source version of jOOQ only supports Firebird 3.0? For Firebird 2.5
support you need to use the commercial version. Likely this means that
it will soon move to Firebird 4.0 support in open-source, with Firebird
3.0 support moved to commercial-only as well.

I hope this gives some insight into my reasoning.

TL;DR: Jaybird 5 will likely still have Java 8 support.

Mark
--
Mark Rotteveel

[amolna...@gmail.com]

Great, thanks! :)