Jesse Glick wrote:
Has anyone given thought to when we drop support for running Ant on JDK 1.2/1.3? These releases are pretty old by now and AFAIK all major platforms have had a decent 1.4 port for a while. I am guessing most Java developers would be using a relatively recent JDK anyway - and those who are still using 1.2/1.3 probably don't expect to be able to use the latest releases of every tool like Ant, either.However Ant has been a constant in most Java dev shops, and dropping support for 1.2/1.3 would be like dropping NT support (after all everyone uses XP Pro or a flavour of Unix right?)
Also there have been many bug-fixes since Ant 1.5, and I'm sure there'll be more to come, do we consign JDK1.2 to Ant 1.6.3?
Continuing to support 1.2 and 1.3 means we need to continue to have various hacks in the codebase - long if/else clauses, reflection - which could otherwise be removed. It means more codepaths, thus harder code to read and more of a testing burden. It also means we cannot easily use JDK 1.4+ APIs, and cannot use assertions at all.I agree that the code is more complicated than necessary (stuff like the StringUtils class provides basic support for stuff that's in JDK1.4, and this type of re-inventing is seemingly a waste of everyone's time).
It'd also be good to get rid of some of the deprecated parts of Ant (although there's a BC issue there too).
Personally I don't really mind (I use 1.4/1.5 so 'no skin off my nose'), but if we are to drop support for 1.2/1.3, could we not also take the opportunity that it represents to sanitize the code-base and rid ourselves of certain legacies? Create in effect a Ant 1.6.3 (works with older stuff), Ant 1.7+ (newer code, requires 1.4+, get's rid of legacy cruft). Essentially acknowledge that by dropping 1.2/1.3 we're breaking BC so why not take the opportunity to really break BC?
rambling now erm +0.2 I suppose
Kev
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