Preparing for Java 21

[hx2A]

I would like to update the install instructions to guide users to install Java 21 instead of Java 17. The minimum required version is still Java 17 but sometime in the future it will be 21. Let's make things as easy as we can for users by getting them to install 21 instead of 17.

A draft of the updated instructions are here:

http://dev.py5coding.org/content/install.html

Any feedback or comments before push to production?

Side note: the thonny plugin installs Java 17 I believe. Should we bump that to 21? Or does it not matter because a future plugin version can install 21 for us?

[GoToLoop]

Side note: the Thonny plugin installs Java 17 I believe. Should we bump that to 21?

Just re-checked it and latest Processing 4.4.7 is still on Java 17.0.8.1.
So IMO we should keep Java 17 + Python 3.10 as default minimum versions.

If a user prefers using a more up-to-date Java (me included), it's enough to setup the JAVA_HOME variable to point to the desired Java version, and then the future thonny-py5mode version will use that by default rather than downloading Java 17.

For a more up-to-date Python, the user can setup a custom venv w/ the desired Python version, and then install Thonny as a regular Python package on that venv.

You just need to mention these more advanced installation options on your py5coding site.

[hx2A]

Right, that's an easy change, if we want to make it.

What does everyone think of the new install instructions? Has anybody read them?

[GoToLoop]

Actually, merely changing 17 to 21 will introduce a subtle bug:
Plugin thonny-py5mode will reject a JAVA_HOME set to Java 17 even though it's perfect fine to run everything!

We need to have a new separate constant just for the version to be downloaded: _DOWNLOAD_JDK = 21
This way, we can keep both _REQUIRE_JDK & _VERSION_JDK as 17, but download 21.

I believe I should edit "install_jdk.py" again. :D

[hx2A]

Actually, merely changing 17 to 21 will introduce a subtle bug:

Good catch.

Let's leave it alone for now. I don't think we should change anything in the plugin related to Java versions because there is the risk of bugs and there are no benefits. When py5 does require Java 21 we can change it in the plugin to 21 and that future plugin release will upgrade all users to 21. I"m more concerned about py5 users who use it outside of Thonny. If we can get some folks to move to 21 now there will be less problems later when it is required.

[GoToLoop]

I"m more concerned about py5 users who use it outside of Thonny.

You mean those who would use py5 w/ other IDEs like I do (I use VSCodium)?

They would need to setup JAVA_HOME anyways. And most likely it'd point to a more up-to-date Java version installation.

[GoToLoop]

If we can get some folks to move to 21 now there will be less problems later when it is required.

At least for those using Thonny + thonny-py5mode, an updated version would auto-trigger the installation of Java 21 once _REQUIRE_JDK is changed to 21 as well.

For those using other IDE's, most likely they're already using a more up-to-date Java anyways.

[hx2A]

I just re-read the new install instructions and made a few more changes. It is in good shape and has been pushed to prod.

@villares , we should also add thonny plugin install instructions to the website. We should have it on both github and py5coding.org.

https://github.com/py5coding/thonny-py5mode#instructions

I created a todo for this and will take care of it.

[villares]

Looks alright, basically a copy of the plug-in documentation.

I thought about simplifying it a bit more by taking the "Credits" and "Useful py5 resources " out. What do you think?
Maybe replacing "Contributing" with "More about the thonny-py5mode plug-in"?

On the other hand, the good thing of keeping it mostly a copy is that it is easier to maintain it in sync with the plug-in docs...

[hx2A]

I thought about simplifying it a bit more by taking the "Credits" and "Useful py5 resources " out. What do you think?
Maybe replacing "Contributing" with "More about the thonny-py5mode plug-in"?

I think the Credits are great and should stay there. Acknowledgements are important to me, and we should keep them.

The useful py5 resources are good also. A visitor to that page might not know about them and might benefit.