[IdPv3] Targeting Java 7

[Chad La Joie]

I thought I sent this out earlier, but I guess not.  So, to close the
loop on this...

We will target (in the JVM compiler option sense) Java 6 for our
releases.  When we release, the supported Java version will be listed
at Java 7.

I'll also note two things that I found when looking in to this:
- There is no indication that distributions are back-porting fixes
from Java 7 to Java 6, nor that they have plans to do this once Oracle
leaves Java 6 for dead.
- Distributions are providing new major releases of languages (and
other app) via upgrades within a given major release stream of a
distribution.

On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 15:09, Chad La Joie <lajoie at itumi.biz> wrote:
> The developers have been discussing the possibility of targeting Java
> 7 for our next major release of our software.  This is primarily due
> to the EOL of Java 6 in July 2012 (i.e. in about 8 months) which is
> right around the time of the OpenSAML and IdP v3 releases.  We believe
> that having people upgrade to Java 7 right at the start is better than
> performing an upgrade right after the release or some months down the
> road.
>
> While not deciding factors, the us of Java 7 also gives us some nice-to-haves:
>  * support for ECC cryptography (a set of algorithms that are
> considered more performant than what we use today)
>  * file/directory change notification (i.e. file stat) support that
> would allow us to reload things like metadata right when they're
> changed instead of periodically polling for changes
>  * more performant scripting engines for those that have lots of
> scripts in their resolver
>
> Java 7 also gives us developers some nice-to-haves that makes our code
> a bit cleaner.  For those that care: the diamond operator,
> try-with-resource, and multi-catch exceptions.
>
> Java 7 packages are currently available as MSI, RPM, and DEB packages.
>  OS X support is under development and taking a bit longer as Apple
> transitions its JRE code over to the OpenJDK project.  Open source
> containers like Jetty, Tomcat, and JBoss support Java 7 already.  We
> are assessing the current, or future, support for Java 7 in commercial
> containers.
>
> --
> Chad La Joie
> www.itumi.biz
> trusted identities, delivered



-- 
Chad La Joie
www.itumi.biz
trusted identities, delivered