Build changes for 7176225: Remove JDBC-ODBC Bridge

[Alan Bateman]

On 26/10/2012 21:14, John Yeary wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> Out of curiosity what will replace it? I looked at the transitional
> notification[1], but it leaves me feeling a little uneasy about it. At one
> point, I worked on a number of "simple" applications which used MS Access
> as the database for a Java Swing front end. The only driver to connect
> these applications was the JDBC-ODBC bridge. A number of those applications
> are still around today. Is it safe to assume that the users will not
> upgrade their systems? When JDK 8 comes out, their applications will fail.
>
> I realize that I have come late to the conversation on this since the
> removal is almost completed, but I see an issue cropping up in the future.
>
> John
>
The JDBC-ODBC bridge has never been in OpenJDK, it's just the make files.

In any case, the JDBC-ODBC bridge has been on death row for a long time. 
Lance can confirm but I believe that it hasn't been updated beyond JBDC 
2.0 whereas JDK7 moved to JDBC 4.1. I don't think it has been usable 
with any of the JDBC features that were added over the last few major 
releases.

Another thing is that I don't think it has ever been supported. The 
oldest documentation I found is JDK 1.3 where it was recommended only 
for experimental use. I don't think it has really been necessary for 
many years anyway as so many JDBC drivers available.

-Alan.