Java 1.3

[Mark S. Miller]

At 07:55 AM 5/24/00 , Marc Stiegler wrote:
>The problem would be the issue with cryptix interface to E, involving issues
>I do not understand, but which markm and tyler do...the question is whether
>I would run into the same problem I ran into when I tried the IBM jvm.

I believe that we cannot move to 1.3 until we stop using Cryptix 3.1.1 and 
switch to Cryptix JCE 1.2.  Once this has happened, I believe we should 
indeed drop support for Java 1.2, since its swing implementation is, let's 
say, not up to Javasoft's normal quality standards.  The open question: 
should we drop support for Java 1.1.x as well?  If we drop it, several 
headaches go away, and we get to depend on two new Java features that would 
make our lives easier:

1) Weak pointers and post-mortem finalization.  This would allow us to 
     replace some delicate & expensive code in the object-pluribus 
     implementation with simpler & cheaper code.

2) The new "proxy" feature would allow us to trivially implement deflectors 
     for all interface types.

There is also apparently a serialization format change that prevents 1.1.x
systems from talking to 1.2/1.3 systems.  Perhaps we should fix this anyway, 
but it might be nice to make the issue go away.

There are also some irritating installation problems that would go away if 
we drop 1.1.x

Speak up for 1.1.x now or forever use >= 1.3.


         Cheers,
         --MarkM