| Update compiler for Java 8 on old 3.6 Helios version [message #1801422] |
Fri, 18 January 2019 14:10  |
Eclipse User |
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Hi!
We are using a legacy customized distribution of Eclipse Helios that ships with several (EMF dependant) plugins.
We use these plugins for java development, so JDT is an important part of the distribution. We have checked and, due to the plugins and heavy changes from 3.6 EMF to current one, an upgrade of Helios to a later release (even Luna) is totally out of the scope (it would involve lots of heavy refactoring on the plugins).
We are looking for ways to enable Java 8 compilation on this platform. The distribution itself already runs smoothly with a Java 8 JDK, but what we are looking for is to compile java code using the Java 8 JDK, generating java 8 binaries and (most importantly) being able to use libraries that depend on java 8.
Code completion, templates or highlighting would be nice to have, but it's not a priority for us. Java 8-dependant library support and java 8 source support is.
I know that this would be a totally unsuported patch (or hack), but I'd appreciate if someone could provide some hints on how to give this a try or where could we begin searching.
I've been looking around and found that a development was made for Java 8 support in Kepler (https://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/java-8-support-eclipse-kepler-sr2). Do you think this could be backported to Helios? Could anyone point me to the sources in eclipse git for that plugin (I'm pretty lost there)?.
Any suggestion (please, not involving migration to a newer Eclipse version) is welcome :-)
Greetings and thanks a lot if you read this far! :-)
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| Re: Update compiler for Java 8 on old 3.6 Helios version [message #1801501 is a reply to message #1801497] |
Mon, 21 January 2019 05:27  |
| Eclipse User |
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Hi
EMF Compare has has a few major version changes, which could be restrictive.
You have a number of choices that must be compatible.
a) Java version => you want 8
b) Eclipse platform version, must support Java aversion
c) EMF version, must be >= Eclipse platform version. All 'EMF' tools should be from the same simultaneous release
Whether it works or not will depend on whether the UI aspects of the tools that you use are compatible with the platform version.
Helios was Eclipse 3.6, But Luna was 4.4, by which time all the e4 excitement had settled down. If you are interested in UI then moving significantly beyond Indigo (3.7) may be challenging.
But you really need to identify what your problem is, and it almost certainly is not 'EMF' as originally suggested. You are probably now encountering the pain of not tracking Eclipse 5 years ago. If you do not track Eclipse now, it will be even more pain in 5 years time. Realistically, if you want to live in the past, do so. The old tools should still work with old platforms and old Java.
Regards
Ed Willink
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| Re: Update compiler for Java 8 on old 3.6 Helios version [message #1801502 is a reply to message #1801501] |
Mon, 21 January 2019 05:49 |
| Eclipse User |
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Okay, that makes more sense now because I work really very hard to make sure that changes to EMF are non-disruptive, i.e., won't break clients, won't make them regenerate, won't cause problems even if they do regenerate, will continue to work with very old versions of Eclipse, and so on.
The same cannot be said for the ecosystem as a whole where developers generally assume you will need to do some work to keep up with the latest and greatest. But as Ed W suggests, living the past is not a great long term solution either, but perhaps for you it's the best tactical solution in the shorter term...
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