[External] : Re: New informational JEP: 14: The Tip & Tail Model of Library Development

[Ron Pressler]

> On 23 Oct 2024, at 15:52, Alan Snyder <javalists at cbfiddle.com> wrote:
> 
> I don’t agree with your characterization of the situation.
> 
> You are probably in a better position than I am to know why people still use JDK 8, but my assumption is many or most of them stick with JDK 8 because they use code that has never been ported to JDK 9 or later and it would be risky and/or expensive to port it.

It can only be more risky/expensive to port than not if the product is no longer under much maintenance. That’s not to say there aren’t many profitable and important legacy products, but they either have little use for new features or can live without them (any avenue for them to get new features is riskier and more expensive than upgrading the JDK).

> 
> That does not imply that they don’t want bug fixes and new features from libraries that are being actively maintained, in which case forking the library and only backporting critical/security problems would not be well received.


It may be the case that some are willing to take on the extra risk of enhancements if they have to pay nothing for them, but others wouldn’t. But the only way that staying on 8 is less risky or cheaper than not is if the product is no longer under active maintenance. In that case, whatever they get — some would prefer more enhancements and some would prefer less — is cheaper than any other alternative.

> 
> My libraries run on JDK 8 and all later JDKs. I use reflection to cover the API differences between JDK 8 and JDK 9+. 

That sounds like more effort than T&T requires.

— Ron