
Old Java
Considering that there are embedded platforms which only support JDK 1.3 still, arguing about dropping 1.4 support seems a bit optimistic.
A summit on the next version of Eclipse platform - E4 - has exposed fundamental disagreements between those who want to update the platform and those wanting to continue support for "old" Java. The dispute is over whether to focus on Java 5 or to continue supporting its aging predecessor Java 1.4. Eclipse projects currently …
UCSD Pascal's concept of write once run anywhere interpreted Pcode sounds a lot (to me) like the Java concept of write once debug everywhere Java bytecode.
But then I'm a dinosaur.
There's not much worth doing that can't be done in PDP11 Fortran IV. The overlays can get a bit tricky sometimes, given that there's only 64kB to play with, but...
Taking that there are loads of app servers running J2EE 1.4, I doubt it to be a good idea dropping 1.4 at all.
Java 5 dropping Entity Beans was reason enough *not* to embrace the Java EE 5 thingy. It isn't nice to set up a standard, and then changing everything in the next release, leaving those who actually adopted it in the cold.
Kind of like those SOAP rpc/encoded webservices...
"There's not much worth doing that can't be done in PDP11 Fortran IV. "
You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building
"The overlays can get a bit tricky sometimes, given that there's only 64kB to play with, but..."
128k if you have an I/D space machine... Now if only I could get some bootable RSX-11M media for mine :(
Performance is indisputably better in the newer versions of java, particularly 6, so any argument for staying with 1.4 based on performance is doomed to look stupid.
Entity beans weren't dropped, the interface and implementation was cleaned up/fixed.
http://www.devx.com/Java/Article/31488/1954
Here's an article on migrating forwards from EJB 2.1 to EJB 3.0
There is no good reason to support ancient Java versions in a new Eclipse version - those who need support for an old version can obviously run an old version of Eclipse. It is not like those poor sods who use Visual Studio and discover that it is impossible to buy the old version they have to use for their legacy code.