Java compatibility? (was Re: Not a bash, just the facts)

[Alan McKinnon]

On Monday 27 March 2006 01:38, Matthew R. Dempsky wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 26, 2006 at 04:38:11PM +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > With Java there's a trade-off with being able to run the same
> > code across many platforms, and backwards compatibility. An app
> > coded to 1.4.2 will run on any 1.4.2 compliant VM *or later*.
>
> If 1.5 is available and will run 1.4.2 code, then why would people
> fuss about wanting to use 1.4.2?

Several reasons:

1.5 extends the language in many ways with new features and keywords - 
generics, typesafe enums, an enhanced for loop and much more. None of 
these new features will run on a 1.4.2 vm, so they should only be 
used if the developer can guarantee that a 1.5 vm will be present.

That's hard to do if you are writing a general purpose program and 
even harder if the app is intended to run on an embedded device.

Not everyone is willing to upgrade right now to a 1.5 vm, it's still 
newish and may have bugs. 1.4.2 is rather stable by now

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan at linuxholdings dot co dot za
+27 82, double three seven, one nine three five