On Fri, 19 Jun 2009, Mark Taylor wrote:
> Distributing a 1.6 JRE (or even JDK) is not problematic. Distributing
> a starjava set which has been built using a 1.6 JDK may be somewhat
> problematic, in that it means anybody wanting to use the
> distributed jar files must be running 1.6, and not everybody is.
> There's no reason in principle why you can't distribute a 1.6 J{RE,DK}
> with a starjava set built using 1.5 (or 1.4), but I don't know if that's
> what the current build/distribute setup is going to do.
>
> The relevant facts are: it's all backwardly but not forwardly compatible,
> so that a J{RE,DK} of version X can work with any classes/jar files
> built using versions <=X, but not >X.
>
> So, I'd prefer to ensure that the starjava build is done using 1.5
> (or 1.4). I don't necessarily demand this, but if you're going to
> do different I'd like to know about it and make sure the implications
> are clear.
>
My main issue is that I don't have a feel for how many people are using
starjava jar files from the starlink distribution but using their own
java. Especially in comparison with how many download from AstroGrid or
build from the repository. If there is a large user community relying on
the starlink distribution to get their stilts jar files, or whatever, then
that would be reason to stick with 1.5 (which is what we've been using for
a while - we aren't going back to 1.4). If starlink users are using splat
and topcat as black boxes then it makes no difference.
--
Tim Jenness
JAC software
http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/~timj
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