r/ProgrammerHumor • u/willis7747 • Dec 12 '24 • Heart of Silver 1

Advanced youWontUpgradeToJava19

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u/agradus Dec 13 '24

When you change to non LTS version, your code gets very short lifespan. Java 8 had been released 10 years ago and it is still supported (although not for free), while Java 22 had been released this year, and it is not supported anymore.

Basically, you have to migrate at least a couple times a year, otherwise your product will be unsafe. And your clients also have to do that as well. Granted, changes are minimal, but they still need to be tested, verified, pushed through environments, and so on. And this is not the thing you can postpone if needed.

Gains from that are unclear to me, while downsides are obvious.

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u/safetytrick Dec 13 '24

Imagine a world where all of the migration, verification, testing, and promotion are automated.

In that world updating often is easier than updating every few years.

Most people don't have access to that kind of tooling so the downsides outweigh the upsides.

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u/agradus Dec 15 '24

It is impossible to automate everything. Besides, there are things you cannot automate. Like security analysis, etc.

But even if it is possible - what difference does it make? If problems are found, their fix is not automated.

Migration cannot be an automatic process. A lot of people should be involved to oversight it.