According to "eselect news read 2009-04-18-java-config-wrapper-0.16" For a long time the Java team required a 1.4 JDK to be installed in order for old java ebuilds to work. All these ebuilds are now gone from the main tree so the requirement to have a 1.4 JDK installed has been lifted. However, it appears stable (and even the most recent unstable) eclipse pulls in 1.4. Setting the JAVA6 flag does not appear to avoid 1.4 either. I also found fop brings in 1.4. I haven't been able to find anything wrong in my set up. If it's not my own stupid error that's bringing in 1.4, I think the news items should be toned down so as not to encourage people to ditch 1.4 yet since there are indeed important applications still in the tree using it. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Desire to use eclipse without 1.4 2. Get over hot to unemerge 1.4 because of news item 3. Get the joy of reinstalling 1.4 because of "overly optimistic" news.
From the news item: If you want to remove 1.4 JDKs, you should use emerge --depclean. Depending on what you have installed you might not need a 1.4 JDK any more. To see if you still need a 1.4 JDK use: You obviously do as you use an Eclipse version that needs it to build etc. If you have a better wording to suggest please submit a patch as I don't have a clear idea on how to make the wording better. The gentoo-news module can be checked out with svn. Instructions are in http://anonsvn.gentoo.org/
The historical context is that previously we always required a JDK 1.4 to be installed. Users of course haven't stumbled upon this requirement really for quite a while any more as only a few rarely used ebuilds have been left. This is what the first chapter talks about.
OK, well if you can emerge *any* eclipse from the gentoo tree without 1.4, you certainly might as well leave the wording as it is. I couldn't find *any* such eclipse. Since eclipse is fairly significant in the java world, it seems strange to word it that "All these ebuilds are now gone from the main tree..." but it's all depends on your perspective. I'm certainly no politician. Thanks for the consideration anyway.
(In reply to comment #3) In other words, although I couldn't find 1.4 mentioned in the lastest eclipse ebuild, it must be lurking in one of the dependencies *or* there is some other step one must take to avoid 1.4. I will just look into it further on my own or just go back to the old 1.4. Thanks anyway.
(In reply to comment #4) > (In reply to comment #3) > In other words, although I couldn't find 1.4 mentioned in the lastest eclipse > ebuild, it must be lurking in one of the dependencies *or* there is some other > step one must take to avoid 1.4. I will just look into it further on my own or > just go back to the old 1.4. Thanks anyway. > You still need to install 1.4 if pulled in by dependencies. Previously java-check-environment always complained about not having 1.4 installed.
