Java 8 compatibility

[Thomas Wuerthinger]

Stefan,

The mx tool and its related requirements (i.e., a Java 7 and a Java 8 version installed) are only relevant for Graal developers. Graal users and Truffle language developers do not have any exposure to this implementation detail and can use binaries provided either by third parties [1] or via the Oracle technology network [2].

We are happy to assist academic artefact evaluation committee members in case they run into issues when building Graal from its sources.

Regards, thomas

[1] http://lafo.ssw.uni-linz.ac.at/builds <http://lafo.ssw.uni-linz.ac.at/builds>
[2] http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oracle-labs/program-languages/overview/index-2301583.html <http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oracle-labs/program-languages/overview/index-2301583.html>
> On 04 Apr 2015, at 09:24, Stefan Marr <java at stefan-marr.de> wrote:
> 
> Dear all:
> 
> I would like to add one more thing to this topic.
> 
> The current state of Java versions Graal and Truffle run on is, well, ‘complex’.
> 
> I submitted TruffleSOM and related artifacts to the PLDI artifact evaluation committee, and while those volunteers evaluating the artifacts probably could not spend unlimited time on doing their work, I would have hoped they succeed in building everything from scratch.
> 
> But, with the complexity of the required Java versions, they failed.
> I guess, my instructions where not precise enough.
> 
> So, what I would like to ask, is to consider the possibility to reduce the requirements exposed to _users_ to a bare minimum.
> While I understand the concerns for distribution and the desire to ship jars for Java 1.7, I do not understand why this should be any concern for someone downloading Truffle and Graal for rerunning experiments, or even starting to use those systems.
> 
> I also understand that it is hard to support all versions of Java.
> So, I would like to suggest that everything is working with exactly _one_ specific version of Java.
> 
> Your users will thank you, I am sure.
> 
> Best regards
> Stefan
> 
> 
>> On 26 Nov 2014, at 17:38, Gilles Duboscq <duboscq at ssw.jku.at> wrote:
>> 
>> Hello Stefan,
>> 
>> the reason we do that is to ensure that Truffle is built against Java
>> 7. This is required to make sure that the Truffle projects do not use
>> any Java 8 API by mistake. So we really want ==1.7  and not >=1.7.
>> Project *using* Truffle are >=1.7.
>> 
>> -Gilles
>> 
>> On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 5:01 PM, Stefan Marr <java at stefan-marr.de> wrote:
>>> Hi Christian:
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On 26 Nov 2014, at 16:54, Christian Humer <christian.humer at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Short answer yes. The Truffle API is still compatible to Java 7. And it has to remain compatible for some time to come because of JRuby.
>>> 
>>> Well, my understanding is that’s rather a ‘no, it also works with Java 8’.
>>> I am not asking to change the minimum version that is supported, but currently, I have to change suite.py manually if I want to compile Graal without having to install Java 7 as well.
>>> 
>>> Is there a way to ask mx to just interpret the check as >=1.7 instead ==1.7?
>>> 
>>> Thanks
>>> Stefan
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Stefan Marr
>>> INRIA Lille - Nord Europe
>>> http://stefan-marr.de/research/
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
> 
> -- 
> Stefan Marr
> INRIA Lille - Nord Europe
> http://stefan-marr.de/research/
> 
> 
>