The future of OpenJDK6

[Martin Buchholz]

Our experience at Google has been that javac7 is a stricter compiler than
javac6.  It is a significant effort migrating from javac6 to javac7 with a
large code base.  Since openjdk6 is all about stability, I would resist
updating the javac in openjdk6.  Some of the "bugs" in javac6 allow user
code to compile successfully!


On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 1:47 PM, Jonathan Gibbons <
jonathan.gibbons at oracle.com> wrote:

> On 03/13/2013 12:47 PM, Andrew Hughes wrote:
>
>> 4.  Finally, this is just a thought, and I realise it may run contrary to
>> your
>> promise of long-term stability and compatibility, but I've been giving
>> some thought
>> to the long running issues we've had with javac in OpenJDK 6.  For those
>> who are
>> unaware, the javac in OpenJDK 6 is not the same as in Oracle's
>> proprietary JDK 6,
>> but rather an early development version of the one used in OpenJDK 7.
>>  I've been
>> wondering if the best way of supporting this long-term would be to use
>> the tools
>> from 7 in OpenJDK 6, with appropriate reversions to make it compatible
>> with 6
>> (defaulting to 6 source/target, having builds pass the 6 TCK), rather
>> than continuing
>> to maintain the hybrid we have now.  This would also mean we'd be able to
>> benefit
>> more directly from any bug fixes or security updates directed at the
>> langtools
>> present in 7.
>>
>
> You might want to bring this up on compiler-dev.
>
> -- Jon
>