[Netrexx-develop] Ad need for Java 8, an example (jni4net) (Re: Ad removed APIs and removed tools and components as per OpenJDK 17 LTS (Re: RxJrt.nrx supporting --add-modules

[Rony G. F. <Ron...@wu...>]

It will be the case that over time more and more Java class libraries will not function anymore
because of the removal of APIs, components and increase of security measurements.

One interesting Java class library that cannot be used starting with Java 11 is "jni4net" which is
the bridge between Java and .Net/CLR as it utilizes "runFinalizersOnExit" which got removed in
OpenJDK/Java 11. The latest version of the jni4net library is at 0.8.8, cf.
<https://github.com/jni4net/jni4net/releases>, released on 2014-09-23.

So indeed supporting Java 8 will allow NetRexx to be viable for that platform in the years to come.

---rony


On 27.01.2022 15:04, Rony G. Flatscher wrote:
>
> It may be interesting/helpful sometimes to get to see which Java APIs and which Java tools and
> components get removed in which version of Java, which Oracle briefly describes as per OpenJDK 17
> LTS:
>
>   * APIs
>     <https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/17/migrate/removed-apis.html#GUID-A7ABC76A-5037-4052-8718-562923FC7028>
>   * tools and components
>     <https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/17/migrate/removed-tools-and-components.html#GUID-F182E075-858A-4468-9434-8FC1704E7BB7>
>
> ---rony
>
>
> On 27.01.2022 14:53, Rony G. Flatscher wrote:
>> On 27.01.2022 13:53, Marc Remes wrote:
>>> And a side note..
>>> You need java 9 or above to compile and run this.
>>>
>>> Which brings up another topic : are we ready to stop supporting java 8?
>> Please no, unless you want to remove most of the Java installed base for NetRexx.
>> :)
>>
>> Seriously, NetRexx should support Java 8 as long as Java 8 gets supported by OpenJDK distributors.
>> E.g. Oracle and Azul support Java 8 until December 2030, for very good reasons! Actually Java 8 gets
>> currently a longer support than Java 11 LTS and Java 17 LTS, believe it or not.
>>
>> [BSF4ooRexx still supports Java 6 as its baseline (that is the reason for "6" in "641", "41" means
>> ooRexx baseline is version 4.1) as there are companies/organizations that have still Java 6
>> deployed. This incurs quite some overhead and support efforts as in Java 6 one needs to use
>> java.lang.reflect whereas starting with Java 9 one must use java.lang.invoke instead (actually
>> BSF4ooRexx uses by default java.lang.invoke starting with Java 8 as Java 7, where this package got
>> introduced, has some missing support in that area).]
>>
>> In general a good overview of the support dates for different versions of Java by different
>> distributors can be found here: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_version_history>.
>>
>> ---rony
>>