[Biojava-l] biojava and Java version

Fri May 11 20:23:02 UTC 2012

We're definitely talking about users. However, the code currently does not
compile using java 1.5 settings.

Also, I suggest we merely comment out the @Overrides so they can be easily
re-added when we eventually do require a higher java version.

On Fri, May 11, 2012 at 1:14 AM, LAW Andy <andy.law at roslin.ed.ac.uk> wrote:

> Are we talking about *developers* or *users* here?
>
>
> If we're talking about users, then could we not generate alternate
> versions of the maven artifacts/final jars by using profiles and the
> compiler plugin target designation.
>
> Only if we're talking about *developers* does the source code Annotation
> issue arise. How many active biojava developers are there that are running
> on a PPC OSX system?
>
>
> Or have I misunderstood?
>
>
> On 11 May 2012, at 05:00, Steve Darnell wrote:
>
> > Hi Andreas,
> >
> > In the end, we all have to make decisions that best support our users.
> Owning an old Mac is a tough proposition (especially a PPC in an Intel
> world) since the Mac culture favors OS and hardware upgrades every 2-3
> years. It's easy to be left in the dust.
> >
> > ~Steve
> >
> > Sent from my HTC Merge
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Andreas Prlic [andreas at sdsc.edu]
> > Received: Thursday, 10 May 2012, 7:08pm
> > To: Steve Darnell [darnells at dnastar.com]
> > CC: Biojava [biojava-l at lists.open-bio.org]
> > Subject: Re: [Biojava-l] biojava and Java version
> >
> > Hi Steve,
> >
> > I agree with looking forward and I usually give the EOL argument to
> > Java 1.5 users as well and try to convince them to upgrade, too.  In
> > the end Apple is to blame for putting this customer in a difficult
> > situation and not having the choice of an upgrade.
> >
> > I am bringing this up since at the RCSB PDB we are using BioJava in a
> > couple of Java webstart applications and as such we are confronted
> > with a diverse user group.  80% of the users are on Java 1.6,  but the
> > rest is using a variety of newer and older versions.
> >
> > Since we can't control the Java version at the user end I would prefer
> > to stay a bit backwards compatible as long as it does not cause pain
> > and move along with the bulk of users.  Removing @Override annotations
> > seems like an easy enough compromise for supporting 1.5 and making the
> > few people happy, who are still stuck with legacy hardware.
> >
> > Andreas
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 4:08 PM, Steve Darnell <darnells at dnastar.com>
> wrote:
> >> Greetings,
> >>
> >> I agree with the original BioJava3 design principles (
> http://biojava.org/wiki/BioJava3_Design), the first of which is "BioJava3
> (BJ3) will freely incorporate features from Java 6."
> >>
> >> Java 5 has been EOL'd since October 2009 and Java 6 EOL is scheduled
> for November 2012 (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/eol-135779.html).
> Apple stopped using PowerPC processors in 2006 and has not updated OS X
> 10.5 in almost a year (June 2011).
> >>
> >> I suggest planning for the future rather than clinging to the past.
> There is a positive buzz with my coworkers about switching to Java 7. The
> language changes alone are a very welcomed improvement:
> http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/jdk7-relnotes-418459.html
> >>
> >> * Binary Literals
> >> * Strings in switch Statements
> >> * The try-with-resources Statement
> >> * Catching Multiple Exception Types and Rethrowing Exceptions with
> Improved Type Checking
> >> * Underscores in Numeric Literals
> >> * Type Inference for Generic Instance Creation
> >> * Improved Compiler Warnings and Errors When Using Non-Reifiable Formal
> Parameters with Varargs Methods
> >>
> >> I do sympathize for those who cannot upgrade from OS X 10.5 and PPC.
> Perhaps the SoyLatte OpenJDK 7 build for PPC may provide an acceptable
> solution for running BioJava3 on Leopard PPC?
> http://landonf.bikemonkey.org/static/soylatte/bsd-dist/openjdk7_darwin/openjdk7-macppc-2009-12-16-b4.tar.bz2
> .
> >>
> >> Best regards,
> >> Steve
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: biojava-l-bounces at lists.open-bio.org [mailto:
> biojava-l-bounces at lists.open-bio.org] On Behalf Of Andreas Prlic
> >> Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 4:51 PM
> >> To: Biojava
> >> Subject: [Biojava-l] biojava and Java version
> >>
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> After some discussions with a user I was reminded of the issue that
> there are some PowerPC based OSX systems that are locked into
> >> OSX10.5.8 . They can't upgrade their OS and they can't upgrade to Java
> >> 1.6 because none of these are available for PowerPCs. While that is not
> our fault, the question is if we should try to make BioJava backwards
> compatible towards 1.5.
> >>
> >> Anybody out there on such a system?
> >>
> >> Any opinions on making BioJava java 1.5 backwards compatible again?
> >> Essentially it means a global replace all "@Override" with ""
> >>
> >> Andreas
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Biojava-l mailing list  -  Biojava-l at lists.open-bio.org
> http://lists.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/biojava-l
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
> Later,
>
> Andy
> --------
> Yada, yada, yada...
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