Must use Java 8 for now

[lesserwhirls]

Looks like we will need to stay on java 8 until chronicle-map starts using a newer java. According to this issue:

OpenHFT/Chronicle-Map#155 (comment)

the target is java 11. This is in addition to any issues related to our gradle build and newer versions of java.

[julienchastang]

BTW, the IDV is on Java 8 indefinitely (various Java 3D issues will prevent it from working on > 8) so ncIdv will always have to be Java 8.

[lesserwhirls]

We are not actively looking at >java 8 features, but there are some on our radar. The issue here is that we want to be able to run under newer versions of Java (also compile, but at least run), at the very least out of security concerns on the server side. Right now, our code (particularly one third-party dependency) does not run on >java 8.

Now, there certainly are features in newer version of Java that we want to use, such as the fruits of project jigsaw, but that won't won't happen quickly by any means. At that point we'd need to figure out the future of ncIdv.

[julienchastang]

Additional literature and clarifications pertaining to the IDV and therefore ncIdv.jar being stuck on Java 8:

• Java 3D Forum
• Description of running Java 3d on Java 9 on MacOS. From Julien Gouesse, one of the Java3D maintainers: I still use Java 1.8 in production and I won't switch before 2019. We'll have to revisit this problem later.

Description of running Java 3d on JRE > 8u51

• Thread on older Intel hardware running Windows and related
• Driver libraries fail to load for a Java 8u60+ process on Windows 10

In a related area, note that Apple is deprecating OpenGL. So going forward, maybe the IDV will stop working on MacOS entirely and we could drop support for older versions of Intel hardware (disappearing through attrition anyway) which would give us a path forward to Java 9 for ncIDV.jar.

[lesserwhirls]

As of #1203, we can run on Java 11 - this is true for both v4.6.12 and v5.0.0. The next step is to get the code base building using Java 11 (still using only Java 8 features). This will involve bumping Grafdle to 4.9 (or maybe even 5), and we already know there will be issues with some of our plugins, such as Gretty...but least we even have a shot at running under Java 11 now :-)

[rschmunk]

FWIW, I am hearing that the Java 8 run-time will be removed from my office computer come the end of January. Presumably they'll detect the JDK and move that too. Not sure how this will affect the Java 9 JDK I also have installed but wouldn't be surprised if it goes away also. I have so far avoided using Java 11 as it causes breakage with a bit of code I wrote using JavaFX — it's likely I'll just revert that code to Swing. Dropping the nashorn engine in some forthcoming Java is likely to cause me much more grief.

In any event, I do have occasion to build netCDF-All 5.0. It looks like come February I'll be trying to do so using the Java 11 JDK, or more likely openjdk.

[lesserwhirls]

My plan is to spend the next few weeks trying to get our gradle build/test infrastructure working with java 11, even if it is only parts of the build. Isn't there a JavaFX SDK available for java 11 now? The nashorn engine issue...now that's no fun at all. At least java 11 is LTS through September 2023 so you have some time (at least I hope they would keep nashorn around in 11 until the end).

[rschmunk]

@lesserwhirls, I may take another whack at Java 11 compilation over the holiday. First issue to figure out will be why gradle won't recognize the Java version number, even though I installed gradle 5.0 the other day.

The nashorn thing could be a big pain for me. Partly because I still use ant when compiling apps and have a couple short nashorn scripts that my projects call, but mostly because one command-line app is based on using it. I'm hoping that the Graal project will get around to providing a single drop-in jar, esp. so that users of one of that app don't have to install GraalVM.

As for JavaFX, I'm not using it much, and I don't want to bother with providing platform-dependent libraries.

[ekkelenkamp]

Trying to run thredds on tomcat:9.0.27-jdk11-corretto fails for version 4.6.14 for the WMS service. It is working fine for jdk8. Just curious to know what the roadmap is for the JDK11?