support for newer classes in older JRE's

[kevin.osborne]

I need to to support classes that are present in the runtime for 1.5 in
1.3/1.4.

I remember being able to this a few years back, when you could get
crimson.jar & jaxp.jar to redistribute to clients running 1.3 when the
classes in crimson/jaxp were part of rt.jar in 1.4

specifically I wish to code to JCE classes under javax.crypto in
1.4/1.5 and be able to run that code under 1.3/1.4.

The solution would be to have redistributable jar files from sun that
contain the delta between 1.3 -> 1.4 -> 1.5 that I can supply to
clients (on CD, so the size of these deltas is unimportant, and I can
require the jars to be on the classpath)

Do sun/java support this? I presume it isn't legal for me to unpack
rt.jar etc for 1.5, grab the class files I need, re-jar them seperately
and redistribute them with my commercial product.
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

 

[Oscar kind]

I need to to support classes that are present in the runtime for 1.5 in
1.3/1.4.

This is not a problem, as long as you:
- Restrict yourself to libraries that are available as 1.3/1.4 libraries
- Only use classes/methods from the JDK that were present in 1.3/1.4
- Use the compiler argument "-source 1.3" or "-source 1.4" while
compiling.

I remember being able to this a few years back, when you could get
crimson.jar & jaxp.jar to redistribute to clients running 1.3 when the
classes in crimson/jaxp were part of rt.jar in 1.4

You mean they were available separately? Then yes, that's very well
possible.

specifically I wish to code to JCE classes under javax.crypto in
1.4/1.5 and be able to run that code under 1.3/1.4.

It's available as a separate download for 1.4:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html
(at the bottom of the page)

I don't know if it is available for 1.3, but I think it isn't.

The solution would be to have redistributable jar files from sun that
contain the delta between 1.3 -> 1.4 -> 1.5 that I can supply to
clients (on CD, so the size of these deltas is unimportant, and I can
require the jars to be on the classpath)

You mean you want to have the 1.5 features available under 1.3/1.4? That's
a maintenance nightmare, IF it is legal to start with (it probrably]
isn't).

It's much easier to upgrade: no maintenance hassles, and no legal
implications. Also, upgrading is reasonable easy to manage in terms of
time and money. Retrofitting is certainly not, unless you have experience
with it (which you don't, because then you wouldn't need to ask).
BTW, this is something to tell a manager.

Do sun/java support this? I presume it isn't legal for me to unpack
rt.jar etc for 1.5, grab the class files I need, re-jar them seperately
and redistribute them with my commercial product.

In both cases I think the answer is no, but I haven't specifically checked
it. I suggest you work around it, or use the JCE that's downloadable for
1.4. After all, 1.4 is out for about two and a half years; it's not
unreasonable not to support 1.3.

 

[Ann]

While you are at it, how about putting that cadillac air
conditioning in my ford pickup truck.