[Pljava-dev] Ongoing Development (funding): 8.4, Java 6 and beyond

Hi Peter,

On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 1:51 PM, Peter Brewer <p.brewer at cornell.edu> wrote:
> Hi Johann,
>
> As Lucas said last week, we'll need an official release if the major
> repositories are to accept an 8.4 version. ?Is this something that can
> happen now?

Yes with a caveat: There is no Java 6 support yet. The 8.3 Ubuntu
package used GCJ, possibly for this reason. This means that the
version (binary) I am using was compiled with Java 1.4.

I have fixed one Java 6 compile error. There are new virtual methods
in the JDBC interfaces that the SPI driver needs to implement.

I estimate 2-3 days of actual coding to get it up to speed and 3-5
days more for testing.

> My personal needs were fixed temporarily by Lucas' binary, but I would feel
> *much* more comfortable if an official binary was in the major
> respositories.

That is what I want to see as well.

> In terms of Ubuntu at least, pljava is already several releases behind the
> times. ?The mismatch in versions means that there hasn't been a functioning
> pljava for several releases now, and Maverick is just days away from launch.
> ?With the release and gradual adoption of PG9, things are getting even more
> desperate.

I also have questions: What PG releases do we (I?) need to support?
Java 6 and the Postgres releases are two different coding projects
(for the most part). What combinations do we want? Java 4 and 5 have
already been EoLd, PG 7, 8.0 and 8.1 are on life support.

Do we freeze 8.3 and below at Java 5 and below or is there need/want
for Java 6 for the older Postgres releases?

Here I'll point out that this is only relevant when compiling pljava,
of course it will run on a later JVM.

> I guess there is the possibility of getting modest funds from my lab, but I
> couldn't begin to ask for money until a firm plan with milestones was in
> place. ?What sort of ballpark are we talking here? ?Hours, days, weeks or
> months? ?It sounds to me like we're just a few hours away from 8.4 support,
> but what about 9?

A firm plan is something I can't make until I realize what the
milestones are and get more familiar with the code/project. One which
I found earlier is that the SPI driver isn't fully JDBC compliant.
Adding that as a milestone with certification and everything can
easily add several weeks to the project.

Installing 9 on my poor laptop just to try out pljava is something I'm
not very inclined to do. At least not without a good reason (as in
money).

With an access to a 9 play server I'd be willing to give it a go next week.

There is also the question of continued support. Java 7 will be with
us soon enough. There are platforms to consider, 32 and 64 bits and
so on. So far I've only tested this on a 32 bit Ubuntu.
(Open)Solaris x64 is next on my list since I'm already familiar with
the platform.

Throwing out a release for 8.4 is useless if it only runs on 32 bit
Ubuntu running on my personal laptop.

Johann