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Re: [jdt-dev] About Y-Builds (was Re: 4.35 Y-Build: Y20250111-1000 - BUILD FAILED)
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Now to the question which problem we are trying to solve:
For a moment let's not talk about technical or legal issues, but about people.
Obviously we all want as many good people working on JDT as possible :)
But I have difficulties recalling the "dozens of people" who have tried to work
on unreleased java features and have gone away due to complexity of branching.
If I think long enough I could remember one person who might possibly match this
description, his name is Mickael Istria :)
So either I just didn't notice others suffering the same fate, or we should
simply switch to helping Mickael to learn working in the branch :)
More broadly speaking, I think the interest in unreleased Java versions has
drastically dropped by the time when Oracle switched to the current release
cadence. Back at the time of Java 8 and Java 9, of course there was great
anticipation of the next big thing, both at the JDT side and even more on the
side of users, eager to work with the new version even before it was released.
My guess is that nowadays people are happy to play with the recently released
features, which will still be new to most of them perhaps several releases back.
So why look at the one additional small set of changes that hasn't been released
yet? Does JDT have all the IDE features we could wish for, regarding java
versions up-to and including 23? I don't know who's working on that, but there
might be enough enhancements to be done even on master?
That said, I'm all in favor of raising more public awareness, both for testing
Y-builds as well as for patch releases.
Another people-aspect is collaboration between JDT and releng. Perhaps the
perception of problems result from my requests for releng help for the branch
every now and then? But don't I ask for releng help for master much the same
way? :) -- In this regard even just a single person can make the difference. In
the past Sravan was one such person. Ed Merks has always been a solver of all
kinds of problems (and I don't recall him complaining about the branching).
Currently Hannes Wellmann has done great contributions in this area, and please
excuse if I forget someone else in this category. So perhaps we could just let
releng people speak for themselves here? Perhaps Aleksander is the one being
asked for help more than he likes? It would be only fair for him to say so.
While the grass could always be greener, and surely not everything is sunshine
and roses, perhaps we don't even have a problem of a severity that motivates any
major changes? - Other than: more contributions! :)
best,
Stephan
Am 15.01.25 um 09:51 schrieb Mickael Istria:
My perception is that the process to contribute to next Java version in JDT is
really difficult and has thrown dozens of people away. Indeed, there are a few
example of people working on JDT for years or on Eclipse Platform many hours a
week (and being paid for that) who can deal with this convoluted process
efficiently enough for them, but there are some who just give up trying to
contribute to next Java version because this process is too complicated and
makes them less efficient and less successful. And I suspect this is more people
giving up than peopel actually contribution, and that "mainstreaming" the
process would keep some more people around and that it would be worth the cost
of a few `if (Boolean.getBoolean("jdt.jepXYZ")` here and there.
But I'm biased too.
So, the few adopters who care about, can in fact take the Y builds and
experiment.
Well, that's one issue I'm trying to address, and IMO 1 issue that should be the
priority for JDT as a project if it wants to remain viable on the long run: how
come there are so few adopters who care about? I think the BETA branch is one
bit of a cause here.
Cheers
