[jdom-interest] Opinion Poll: - JDOM2 and minimum-required Java - Java5 or Java6

[Michael Kay]

* Does anyone have a realistic need to run a future JDOM2 on Java5?


I think in the context of a project where people can stick with JDOM1 if they wish, having a dependency on Java 6 seems reasonable at first blush.

But...

In Saxon we want to support JDOM2. But we also want Saxon to work on Java 5. We don't mind having a restriction that you can't use JDOM2 with Saxon if you're on Java 5. But we've certainly got some extra complexities making this work, e.g. we might need to isolate the code that references JDOM2 into a separate package that is compiled under Java 6 and is not statically referenced from the main Saxon JAR file.

So it would definitely be simpler for us and for our users if it all works under Java 5.

Similar complexities are likely to apply to many other components that want to integrate JDOM2.

 From past experience the more complex the application, the harder it is for people to move forward. Typical scenario: the user has a license for Oracle N; upgrading it to Oracle N+1 will cost millions, but Oracle N only runs under Java version J. There's no business justification for spending the millions, so they're stuck with Java J, and everything else they use in the same application then also has to run under Java J.

Michael Kay
Saxonica