JDK issue 1.4.2 vs 1.5.0

Third_Echelon

Is it better to have the JDK on the backend and frontend at the same release level or can they be different? i.e. will there be any issues with having the backend application running on 1.4.2 and the frontends using a Java GUI while running 1.5.0 on the frontend.

Scenario: Backend server running 2 applications. App 'A' can run on 1.4.2 or 1.5.0. App 'B' can only run on 1.4.2

Front end side. App 'A's GUI requires 1.5.0 JDK. App 'B' can use either 1.4.2 or 1.5.0... so on the frontend it can be upgraded to 1.5.0 and there should be no issues...

My question being, even though it is possible to use different versions could there be problems with App 'B' and the communication between the backend and frontend due to differnt JDK versions? Technically it should work, right?

Has anyone ever come across this situation before?

Tobias Greeshman

Yeah it really should work assuming there's no API changes between the 14 jdk and the 15 jdk. That's not to say there won't be performance differences.

Personally I wouldn't mix the jdk versions on either tier of the system, I'd use 14 on the backend and 15 on the frontend.

I can't say exactly how well its work, you'll have to implement it and test how well it works.

lynchie

What is the communication mechanism between client and server. If its just plain sockets, then there is no difference between jdks so you can mix them if you like. If you are using rmi or serialisation then there may be differences if u are passing around serialised core jdk classes.