Removal of the old build system, partial review

[Kelly O'Hair]

With build logic, it is relatively easy to build before and after and verify the exact same resulting bits.
So the risk is considerably less than in other areas of software development.

There might be more risk leaving it in, where the wrong build logic gets changed to fix an issue,
or the old build logic continues to be used and maintained.

Assuming that you may be supporting jdk8 updates for a long time, the long term maintenance cost could be significant. And if you declare that it won't be supported, why keep it.

-kto

On Oct 31, 2013, at 9:17 AM, Chris Hegarty wrote:

> I agree completely with the sentiment here, but the conversation with Magnus seemed to be headed in the direction of weighing up the risk of doing this so late in the jdk8 game. I am just looking for a clear understanding of the benefits of doing this now, rather than early in 9, or an 8 Update.
> 
> -Chris.
> 
> On 10/31/2013 04:03 PM, Kelly O'Hair wrote:
>> 
>> On Oct 31, 2013, at 7:49 AM, Alan Bateman wrote:
>> 
>>> On 31/10/2013 14:38, Chris Hegarty wrote:
>>>> What are we gaining by removing this in jdk8? Does it make sense to do it as one of the first pushes to 9?
>>> The old build is currently a tax, and a tax that will continue into the 8 updates until the old build is removed or disabled. It's a real shame that the old build wasn't removed 6 months ago.
>>> 
>>> -Alan.
>> 
>> My 2 cents...  I agree. The longer you leave the old stuff in, the harder it gets to remove it and the more
>> confusing you make it for any new people just starting to look at the code base and understand how it works.
>> My recommendation is to toss this old stuff as soon as you possibly can.
>> 
>> -kto
>>