does eclipse play nicely with sun's JDK??

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TrevorBoydSmith@gmail.com - 15 Aug 2006 13:48 GMT

Hey all, so my customer uses a really old version of the Sun Java
interpreter "j2re-1_4_0_01". I would like to use the eclipse IDE to
develope my code but I don't think the eclipse compiler "ECJ" will
compile in a form that is understood by the Sun interpreter. Is this
assumption correct?

Assuming I am correct, I bet I could at the very least use eclipse as a
text editor of sorts and then use the Sun compiler? (This way I could
still have some advantage of the Eclipse IDE.)

I am not too overly attached to fancy IDE's but they do help speed up
your developement sometimes.

-Trevor

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hicks@bigmailbox.net - 15 Aug 2006 14:11 GMT

> Hey all, so my customer uses a really old version of the Sun Java
> interpreter "j2re-1_4_0_01". I would like to use the eclipse IDE to
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> I am not too overly attached to fancy IDE's but they do help speed up
> your developement sometimes.

Absolutely! Eclipse is an invaluable for Java development IMO. Just
having a tool that will allow you to easily navigate through the code
base is a big help to start with.
If Eclipse doesn't work with your version of Java for some reason, then
you can always build your code for deployment with ant, using your
required compiler. Eclipse even has integration with ant built in.

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TrevorBoydSmith@gmail.com - 15 Aug 2006 15:24 GMT

Thanks so much for the help! But now that opens more questions!

> you can always build your code for deployment with ant, using your
> required compiler. Eclipse even has integration with ant built in.

Ya so far as I understand it ANT is a way of controlling what gets
compiled
and is similiar to a makefile. It sounds like ANT can do more than
a makefile,
right?

Secondly, to use eclipse with j2re 1.4.0.01 would I just have to change
the
compiler/paths/etc?

Would I only have to change these settings in ANT?

Also in the IBM eclipse documentation it says that it compiles
everything to support JDK 1.3. Does this mean I am fine using eclipse
without changing anything?

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TrevorBoydSmith@gmail.com - 15 Aug 2006 15:26 GMT

In the documentation it says:
Compiler compliance level / Specifies the JDK compiler compliance level
/ 1.3

So by default shouldn't I be fine?

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hicks@bigmailbox.net - 15 Aug 2006 15:36 GMT

> Thanks so much for the help! But now that opens more questions!
>
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> a makefile,
> right?

If you're doing any serious Java development I'd recommend getting
familiar with Ant. It performs a similar function to Make, but much
more tailored to Java and the way Java code is organised. It can
package up your code ready for deployment. You can also extend the
functionality of Ant.

> Secondly, to use eclipse with j2re 1.4.0.01 would I just have to change
> the
> compiler/paths/etc?

Yes, you can configure Eclipse to use any particular Jdk, and switch
between them. I have several available in my Eclipse workspace, ranging
from 1.3 to 1.5.

> Would I only have to change these settings in ANT?

Well in our development environment, we develop/test the code in
Eclipse, and use separate ant buildconfig files to run Ant and build
the code for deployment. The compiler version we use for Ant is
specified in a properties file.

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Simon Brooke - 15 Aug 2006 22:32 GMT

> Thanks so much for the help! But now that opens more questions!
>
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> a makefile,
> right?

Conceptually similar but not functionally similar. You can't actually
do /more/ than a makefile, because I'm pretty sure _make_ is turing
complete; but ant certainly makes a lot of things easier.

> Also in the IBM eclipse documentation it says that it compiles
> everything to support JDK 1.3. Does this mean I am fine using eclipse
> without changing anything?

Yes.

Signature

simon@jasmine.org.uk (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; my other religion is Emacs

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Simon Brooke - 15 Aug 2006 14:16 GMT

> Hey all, so my customer uses a really old version of the Sun Java
> interpreter "j2re-1_4_0_01". I would like to use the eclipse IDE to
> develope my code but I don't think the eclipse compiler "ECJ" will
> compile in a form that is understood by the Sun interpreter. Is this
> assumption correct?

Works fine with Sun's j2sdk 1.4.2; in fact that's what I mostly use.

Signature

simon@jasmine.org.uk (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

'there are no solutions, only precipitates'

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Andrew Thompson - 15 Aug 2006 14:36 GMT

> Hey all, so my customer uses a really old version of the Sun Java
> interpreter "j2re-1_4_0_01".

AFAIR, that JRE would be afflicted with a particularly
nasty security bug. The user should investigate
immediately, and probably upgrade to a 1.5 auto
updating JRE while they are at it.

Andrew T.

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does eclipse play nicely with sun's JDK??

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