Switching to Java 1.5 ... and than to OpenJDK :-)

I just recently started a discussion on jdk@tools.openoffice.org regarding the OOo Java baseline. Background was the open sourcing of Java to the OpenJDK project, and OpenJDK becoming fully functional, please see my other posting for some details.

There are two points I would like to discuss respectively to announce here, in case nobody objects. Both points are based on an overview listing the OOo platforms and the used Javas respectively the availability of OpenJDK, please see here for the details.

1) While discussing the OpenJDK switch with Svante Schubert, we observed two (pressing) issues in OOos current Java libraries. The first issue is, that some libraries are checked in in binary form, while the second is, that some libraries are functional redundant. Please have a look at Svantes posting for the details. Plan is to fix both issues before releasing OOo 3.0. Unfortunately that means, that we need to raise the Java baseline from 1.3.1 (see here for the old but still current OOo Java policy) to 1.5.

2) Later on, after the availability of OpenJDK (or a compatible version as for Mac OS X), I suggest to switch to OpenJDK as the baseline for OOo, always using the latest OpenJDK available on all of OOos platforms. That would eliminate the need to come together every once a while and to rediscuss Java baselines ... Generically I would express the OpenJDK baseline like this: "Every (Java) developer can expect that an OpenJDK (of a particular release) or better (a Sun, IBM or whatever Java with a higher version number) can be used to build and run OOo. No Java developer shall use any non-standard API and shall ensure that his/her code runs with OpenJDK or better."

There are still some unknowns in the Java platform listing, I did mail the listed owners of these platforms (as listed on http://porting.openoffice.org). Unfortunately some of the mail addresses are not valid any more. So, if you think that you are stakeholder and that the above proposals are not suitable for you, please let me know urgently.

Regards

Kay

tags: baseline java openjdk openoffice openoffice.org

Comments:

Will this affect packaging too? Switching to OpenJDK would also solve many distribution issues (the current OOo+JRE bundle has some distribution limitations due to JRE being non-free software).
Which version can be realistically expected to be the first bundled with OpenJDK? OOo 3.1?

Posted by Andrea on July 14, 2008 at 04:50 PM CEST #

Andrea,

good question ... let's see where this needs to be discussed, may be release@openoffice.org? Don't know yet, but I promise to keep you posted with the results ... :-)

Regards

Kay

Posted by Kay Ramme on July 14, 2008 at 05:31 PM CEST #