I have been debating with the decision to continue to support ColdFusion 7 in the main ColdBox core for version 3.0.0 and move ahead with CF8 compatibility. As of now, we have decided to maintain ColdFusion 7 support, but you can make this change. Our upcoming version is targeted for release by Fall of 2009 and we need your input. We have put together a small survey below and according to the community's response, we will either maintain the core to be ColdFusion 7 compatible or move ahead and have the core be ColdFusion 8 compatibility and above. This includes all CFML engine vendors of course. This survey will determine the development course of the platform. This software is for the community and SHOULD be directed by the community. So here is your chance!! All results will be posted here later on. I will keep this survey open for about 3 weeks.
This is only for versions 3.0.0 and beyond. This would not affect the current versions of 2.6.3.
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(9)
May 27, 2009 20:08:21 UTC
by Andrew
I suppose my question would be: what is gained from dropping it? I only use CF 8 and above, so this will not really affect me if it is dropped... but are you saying that you are sacrificing something (aside from your time of course!) by keeping support (e.g performance, code size/portability, etc.)?
May 27, 2009 21:23:43 UTC
by Jason Dean
I too would like to know what the added benefits of dropping CF7 support would be. Would you be able to add some cool new functionality by using onMissingMethod()? Or would it improve development or extensions to be able to implement a cfinterface? It's been a long time since I used CF7, so I don't care either way.
May 27, 2009 23:28:35 UTC
by Luis Majano
Hi guys. There are several reasons why move to cf8. First of all, we MUST move ahead with technology and not be in the past. Also, jdk1.4 has even been deprecated by Sun, so it makes even no sense to use java objects from jdk1.4. This is a huge improvement in both stability, performance and the advantage of using jdk 1.6 and above for ColdBox. Also, you can leverage threading, onmissingMethod, more scripting and implicit array/structures that cf7 does not have. Overall, there are huge benefits of moving ahead than supporting a platform that even SUN is no longer supporting (1.4JDK).
May 28, 2009 00:05:29 UTC
by Jason Dean
@luis, thanks for the response. That makes great sense. I say do it. CF7 users can always still use 2.6.x right?
May 28, 2009 02:51:34 UTC
by Jason Haritou
@Luis, do you have any stats regarding which version of CF people are using with Coldbox?
May 28, 2009 10:15:20 UTC
by Luis Majano
@dean, Thanks, users with cf7 could still leverage 2.6.X. The decision is for 3.0.0 and beyond only. @haritou Unfortunately no. That is why I am doing this poll, to see what are the thoughts of the community, so they can decide.
May 28, 2009 11:29:19 UTC
by Jason Haritou
I've tried doing a little research into this but haven't come up with anything concrete yet, but is it possible to run CF7 under JDK 1.6? If so what do you think of supporting a minimum version of the JDK as opposed to CF?
May 28, 2009 13:53:11 UTC
by Luis Majano
@jason I have not tried to run cf7 on jdk 1.6 at all, so I have no clue. There are still many people and organizations running on cf7, I know that, but the truth is that cf9 is looming, we now also have open source alternatives and progress has to be made, so the source cannot remain stale. This does not mean that 2.6.3 will go away or not supported for cf7 users. It might even mean, that bugs/patches will still be maintained on the 2.6.3 lineup. Again, this would have to be a community decision, not a decision of the ColdBox Team.
Jun 02, 2009 23:30:21 UTC
by Sean Corfield
I answered the survey (yes) before reading the comments. Yes, threading and onMissingMethod() are good big reasons why a framework might decide to only support CF8+ (and Railo 3.1+ and OpenBD 1.1+). CFMX 7 web services don't work on Java 5 as I recall so I think that to advance beyond Java 1.4 you pretty much have to drop support for CFMX 7.