[tor-bugs] #18861 [Metrics/metrics-lib]: start thinking about using java8

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#18861: start thinking about using java8
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     Reporter:  iwakeh               |      Owner:  karsten
         Type:  task                 |     Status:  new
     Priority:  Medium               |  Milestone:
    Component:  Metrics/metrics-lib  |    Version:
     Severity:  Normal               |   Keywords:
Actual Points:                       |  Parent ID:
       Points:                       |   Reviewer:
      Sponsor:                       |
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 a. Oracle issued the following more than a year ago
 >Auto-update Notice and End of Public Updates for Oracle JDK 7
 >
 >As outlined in the Oracle JDK Support Roadmap, after April 2015, Oracle
 will not >post further updates of Java SE 7 to its public download sites.
 Customers who need >continued access to critical bug fixes and security
 fixes as well as general >maintenance for Java SE 7 or older versions can
 get long term support through Oracle >Java SE Support. The process of
 migrating users from Java 7 to Java 8 through the >auto update feature is
 expected to take place after the January 2015 CPU release.(quoted from
 http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/eol-135779.html)
 a. OpenJDK8 has been available in stable debian for quite a while.
 a. Java8 has matured by now, i.e. there were numerous updates since the
 first release (cf. [http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/8u-
 relnotes-2225394.html here]).
 a. [http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/8-whats-new-2157071.html
 Java8 features] like lambdas, streams, easy parallelization, performance
 improvements for the `java.lang.String(byte[], *)` constructor and the
 `java.lang.String.getBytes()` method, parallel array sorting, standard
 encoding and decoding base64 might be quite useful for metrics-lib in
 particular.

 I think that switching to java8 in Onionoo, metrics-db, and metrics-lib
 should not pose any problems.
 I don't know about other projects that might use metrics-lib?

 Using the new features could be done step by step, in special java8
 branches.

 The metrics-lib
 [https://stem.torproject.org/_static/example/benchmark_metrics_lib.java
 benchmark code] could be integrated in the test codebase for metrics-lib
 and used for measuring performance.

 Nothing very urgent, but it seems a good thing to start thinking about it
 now.


 (And ... Java9 is waiting around the corner ;-)

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