Forge ver. 1.4.2 is to move to Java 7. Who is not prepared?

[Max mtg]

So the question is: what or who is preventing us from migrating to Java 7 our beloved project?

[Chris H.]

Good question Max. Hope that you enjoyed your brief vacation.

1. We need to warn people ahead of time and give them enough time to update. I think that we are currently doing a good job of this. Unfortunately, many people fail to read to read the included docs or the announcement messages. We do our best.

2. As the release dev I need to finish the Java 7 update on my computer. I use an Apple iMac with Mac OS X Lion. Apple provides a version of Java 6 with their OS but they have recently disabled the Java 6 web browser plug-in. My insulin pump needs to upload data to the manufacturers web site using the Java web browser plug-in.

I followed the instructions and ended up with a mixture of the Java 6 JDK and the Java 7 web browser plug-in. My copy of Eclipse is still using the Java 6 JDK and I use Firefox to access the recently installed Java 7 web browser plug-in. So how do I update the Java JDK? Things are different and sometimes difficult when dealing with Apple OS. The other devs here are using Windows and they may not be able to help me.

I find this situation to be confusing and I have not yet figured out how to deal with this. We do not currently have experienced Mac users on our dev team. I could use Dave's and/or Myk's knowledge and experience. But they have gotten busy with other things in their real lives. This happens to all of us at one point or another.

My efforts to bring my diabetes under better control in recent months has been a failure. My blood glucose levels are dropping far too low during substantial portions of each and every day. This leaves me feeling dizzy, confused, weak and ill feeling.

I have been putting off my efforts to do more research in this area. I find that I need to devote the few hours of good blood sugar control to other matters. And my wife is getting ready to have an operation dealing with major reconstruction of her left foot.

[Max mtg]

I did enjoy it, thanks!

1. The first reminder to update to JRE 7 was made upon release of 1.3.15 - that is May, 6th - two months before the estimated 1.4.2 release.
Good chance they have read it, because the message about JRE version change was listed first.

2. JDK is not "updated", but different versions are installed side by side. The active (or default?) one is specified by JAVA_HOME environment variable. The download URL is http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/ ... 80260.html
Eclipse also needs to know that 1.7 is installed - pay a visit to Window -> Preferences -> Java -> Installed JREs. There might also be something you'll need to change at project properties or not... I just don't remember.


I can also set up a build environment on a separate machine, that is buy some VPS hosting to (1) build daylies there and copy them to cardforge.org given FTP access, (2) host trac and (3) act as multiplayer server when it's ready.

[friarsol]

I did enjoy it, thanks!

1. The first reminder to update to JRE 7 was made upon release of 1.3.15 - that is May, 6th - two months before the estimated 1.4.2 release.
Good chance they have read it, because the message about JRE version change was listed first.

They don't even read things that will fix problems they are having. How about we have one more release and say very specifically.. "THIS IS THE LAST RELEASE THAT WILL SUPPORT JAVA 1.6. JAVA 1.7 IS FULLY SUPPORTED AND THE NEXT RELEASE WILL REQUIRE 1.7"

[Chris H.]

My efforts to install Java 7 several weeks ago did not give me the results that I had expected. I could find the .jdk file for Java 6 but the .jdk file for Java 7 was not to be found on my HD.

I used the link that Max provided and downloaded the Mac OS X Java 7 jdk installer and installed. I was then able to find the expected .jdk file for Java 7. Success.

I was then able to add Java 7 to the list of installed JREs in the preferences for Eclipse. I still have the Java 6 JRE set as the default.

[Chris H.]

They don't even read things that will fix problems they are having. How about we have one more release and say very specifically.. "THIS IS THE LAST RELEASE THAT WILL SUPPORT JAVA 1.6. JAVA 1.7 IS FULLY SUPPORTED AND THE NEXT RELEASE WILL REQUIRE 1.7"

 
I agree that people for the most part fail to read anything that may be useful. They will post a message/bug report and will then check back for a response to their message but that is about as far as they are willing to go.

Once we move the project over to java 7 there will continue to be posts concerning the java 7 issue. I guess that we will have to deal with them at that time.


Should we just make the change to java 7 as soon as possible and try to get over this as quickly as is possible?

[Max mtg]

My efforts to install Java 7 several weeks ago did not give me the results that I had expected. I could find the .jdk file for Java 6 but the .jdk file for Java 7 was not to be found on my HD.

I used the link that Max provided and downloaded the Mac OS X Java 7 jdk installer and installed. I was then able to find the expected .jdk file for Java 7. Success.

I was then able to add Java 7 to the list of installed JREs in the preferences for Eclipse. I still have the Java 6 JRE set as the default.

That's good.

Default JRE is chosen from "run configurations" - I found this menu under in the combo-box button that starts the program in Eclipse.

There remain some changes to pom.xml to use 1.7 compiler.

pom.patch | Open

Code: Select all

Index: pom.xml
===================================================================
--- pom.xml   (revision 22114)
+++ pom.xml   (working copy)
@@ -319,8 +319,8 @@
                 <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                 <version>3.0</version>
                 <configuration>
-                    <source>1.6</source>
-                    <target>1.6</target>
+                    <source>1.7</source>
+                    <target>1.7</target>
                     <compilerId>groovy-eclipse-compiler</compilerId>
                            <!-- set verbose to be true if you want lots of uninteresting messages -->
                            <!-- <verbose>true</verbose> -->
@@ -746,8 +746,14 @@
             <artifactId>minlog</artifactId>
             <version>1.2</version>
         </dependency>
-
         <dependency>
+            <groupId>com.oracle</groupId>
+            <artifactId>javafx</artifactId>
+            <version>2.2</version>
+            <systemPath>${java.home}/lib/jfxrt.jar</systemPath>
+            <scope>system</scope>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
             <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
             <artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
             <version>3.1</version>


The first change sets compiler version, the second one adds java fx to dependencies.

There could be users who didn't upgrade and they might have troubles doing so. Still, most bug reports we recieve already use jre7, so the users are prepared.

Since your development system is already set up, I see no other reason to delay the transition.

[Sloth]

There could be users who didn't upgrade and they might have troubles doing so. Still, most bug reports we recieve already use jre7, so the users are prepared.

I searched for the string "Java Version: 1.6" in our forum and found only one post since february. So ready to go.

[Chris H.]

I think that we should go ahead and make the change over to Java 7 at this time. We have given notice to our user base and we can hope that many of them are aware of this planned update.

I will make the configuration changes to my copy of Eclipse in the next few hours.

Max, can you make your proposed changes to the pom file for us?

[Max mtg]

Just have done that.

[Chris H.]

I am getting two build errors this morning. I believe that I made the correct configuration changes to Eclipse. Do I need to download the javafx-2.2 myself from somewhere?

Code: Select all

Missing artifact com.oracle:javafx:jar:2.2   pom.xml   /ForgeSVN   line 749   Maven Dependency Problem
The container 'Maven Dependencies' references non existing library '/Users/chrish/.m2/repository/com/oracle/javafx/2.2/javafx-2.2.jar'   ForgeSVN      Build path   Build Path Problem

[Max mtg]

No, java fx should have came bundled with jre 7

If the only java fx dependency is not working, let's comment it out for now - just to make sure the 1.7 build succeeds

[Chris H.]

Forge will not build without errors. Looks like mainly unresolved errors.

_unknownDeckCombo cannot be resolved ImportDialog.java /ForgeSVN/src/main/java/forge/gui line 344 Java Problem

It looks like my JDK Compliance is still set to 1.6. I unchecked the "Use default compliance settings" checkbox but Java 1.7 is not included in the list so I can not set it to 1.7.

[jendave]

Hi Chris,

Sorry to hear about your health issues and your wife's surgery. As far as Java 1.7 compliance goes, I have set up my machine with Java 7 and I am able to help with the build/release. That said, there are some major issues. The Java tool that Forge uses for making a Mac-friendly app, JarBundler is not compatible with the new Java 7 config on the Mac. Forge builds but the Mac .app does not run. The jar runs fine from the command line. I will take a look and try to fix it.

Dave

[Chris H.]

Forge will not build without errors. Looks like mainly unresolved errors.

_unknownDeckCombo cannot be resolved ImportDialog.java /ForgeSVN/src/main/java/forge/gui line 344 Java Problem

It looks like my JDK Compliance is still set to 1.6. I unchecked the "Use default compliance settings" checkbox but Java 1.7 is not included in the list so I can not set it to 1.7.

 
I was able to get rid of the build errors and forge will now build and run from within Eclipse on my machine.

The Java Compiler section allowed me to change the Java Build Path and I see a warning that "The 1.7 compiler compliance level is not yet supported." This may require a version of Eclipse that is newer than 3.7.0.

After starting Forge from within Eclipse I pressed the "Report a bug" button and the repost states "Java Version 1.6.0.45 Apple Inc". Hmmm. I built a snapshot locally via Maven and then launched the jar. This time it reports Java 7 correctly. We might be OK here.

I see that Eclipse now wants to merge the updated ".classpath" file to the repo. Ugh.