On Tue, 2 Jun 2009, Mark Taylor wrote:
> > Mark, is it finally time to let go of 1.4 as the feature target?
>
> That sounds to me like a separate question. I agree that 1.4 is
> getting quite old; maybe we could if you have a reason for wanting to.
The main, somewhat tangential, reason is that 1.4 has reached it's EOSL
(end of service life), so there will be no further updates. Not
necessarily a problem for development, but end users should not be
encouraged to use that product and will find it increasingly difficult to
obtain (go looking for a download on java.sun.com).
Given that position it would seem odd to not allow for 1.5 features in the
code base, generics being the most obviously useful. From a more selfish
perspective I'm also aware that Java has moved on so our skills aren't as
fresh as they might be.
> However, I'd be wary of going straight to 1.6, especially as Tim says
> there may be Mac users which that would exclude.
Agreed, just thinking about moving to 1.5 as the feature target, 1.6 is
clearly fine for bundling in a release.
Peter.
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