Removal of Java 1.1 and 1.2 support in the ports tree

[Michael Conlen]

On Oct 2, 2007, at 5:13 PM, Greg Lewis wrote:

> G'day Mark,
>
> On Tue, Oct 02, 2007 at 11:17:19AM +0200, Mark Evenson wrote:
>>> More than a month ago, JDK ports related to Java 1.1 and 1.2 were  
>>> marked
>>> DEPRECATED and scheduled for removal. This period has come to an  
>>> end,
>>> and it is now time that we remove the support for these ports in
>>> bsd.java.mk before we delete the JDK ports themselves.
>>
>> I just noticed that java/jdk11 is scheduled for removal, so sorry for
>> the late comment.
>>
>> I would like to add one use case for this port:  compiling code that
>> will run on the version of Java shipped with every vanilla  
>> Microsoft OS
>> since Windows 98 (aka. "the Microsoft Virtual Machine").  Its been a
>> number of years (2003) since I needed this (getting an Java SSH  
>> applet
>> that will work in any cybercafe on the planet). but java/jdk11 was
>> really the only environment where I had a chance of producing code  
>> that
>> seemed to work reliably.
>>
>> Maybe I never will need to do this kind of work again, but I just  
>> wanted
>> to mention how this port could potentially be useful outside of  
>> internal
>> FreeBSD ports dependencies.
>
> Unless someone else comes forward saying they are using jdk11 today, I
> don't see a statement of "this was useful for me 4 years ago" as  
> being a
> reason to keep an ancient version of Java around today :).
>
> Even if someone did, I'd point out that the only way to use jdk11  
> is via
> the compat3x port, which has been marked FORBIDDEN for a long time and
> has an unknown number of security holes.
>
> Basically, I think the removal of these ports will be going ahead  
> unless
> someone comes up with a Really Good [TM] reason not to.  They're  
> basically
> just a maintenance burden at the moment.
>
> That being said, we're not removing the distribution files for  
> jdk11, so
> if someone desperately needs to use an 8 year old JDK they can still
> download the binary, install compat3x and run it (assuming it does).
>
> Similarly for jdk12 the patchsets are still downloadable and there are
> manual compilation instructions included (if you can get one of the
> bootstrap JDKs to actually run).

If someone needs it for this reason there's always the option of  
doing what I do when I need to test compatibility with Windows 95,  
install a virtual machine with the old version of FreeBSD on it to  
test with.

PS: you never heard me say I install Windows 95 virtual machines, I  
swear, it never happened..

--
Michael Conlen