James Gosling Unloads on Users of Java 1.4.2
James Gosling Unloads on Users of Java 1.4.2
date:May 11, 2011For some, old habits die hard. For others, old versions of the Java platform die hard.
Will You Please Stop Using 1.4.2...
And while Java 7 is the talk of the town, the sad fact is that a good number of Java professionals are still compiling against and deploying their applications to a 1.4.2 JDK. Richard Mayhew's recent polling of 500 developers, whose survey results were published at TheServerSide.com, showed that 5% of respondents were using 1.4.2 on their development machine at work, and 8% were targeting a 1.4.2 JDK for deployment. And while these aren't catastrophic numbers, they are enough to cause consternation.
"It always depressed me just how many people were stuck running 1.4.2. [Java] 1.4.2 has been the bane of my existence for years."
-James
Gosling,
"The father of Java"
TSS JS 2011
What should 1.4.2 users do?
So, what should you do if you are using 1.4.2? "Get with the program. Upgrade!" Says Gosling. "If I could have I would have pushed an update out that would have caused it to just die. But so many people would just not let go of 1.4.2."
A simple solution
Indeed, the simplest solution is to just upgrade the darn thing to at least version five. And if you're really adventurous, jump right ahead to version 7. With seven installed, you should be good to go another ten years or so without upgrading it again.
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