A general discussion

Question

Sun keeps on changing the version of jdks and j2ee sdks as well as
runtime.However,there are packages offered by third party example IText that provides API for handling pdf documents.
Say for example developer of IText compiled the classes in JDK1.2 and i have runtime version which is latest.
In that case i get an error bad class name.Which mean downloading/
development effort (of third party) goes waste.
What should the third party do in this case..Should they keep observing
sun when they are changing their class versions.And do you expect them to keep recompiling and uploading their packages on site.
Is sun working for their own developers flexibility or users of sun tools?
Plz comment.

Answer 1

i tried this code giving error mentioned below.
* $Id: HelloWorld.java 2365 2006-09-14 22:52:48Z xlv $
* $Name$
* This code is part of the 'iText Tutorial'.
* You can find the complete tutorial at the following address:
* http://itextdocs.lowagie.com/tutorial/
* This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
* [email protected]
package com.lowagie.examples.general;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import com.lowagie.text.Document;
import com.lowagie.text.DocumentException;
import com.lowagie.text.Paragraph;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfWriter;
* Generates a simple 'Hello World' PDF file.
* @author blowagie
public class HelloWorld {
      * Generates a PDF file with the text 'Hello World'
      * @param args no arguments needed here
     public static void main(String[] args) {
          System.out.println("Hello World");
          // step 1: creation of a document-object
          Document document = new Document();
          try {
               // step 2:
               // we create a writer that listens to the document
               // and directs a PDF-stream to a file
               PdfWriter.getInstance(document,
                         new FileOutputStream("HelloWorld.pdf"));
               // step 3: we open the document
               document.open();
               // step 4: we add a paragraph to the document
               document.add(new Paragraph("Hello World"));
          } catch (DocumentException de) {
               System.err.println(de.getMessage());
          } catch (IOException ioe) {
               System.err.println(ioe.getMessage());
          // step 5: we close the document
          document.close();
}Result in error
C:\Javapr\HelloWorld.java:21: cannot access com.lowagie.text.Document
bad class file: c:\jdk1.3.1_08\lib\itext-2.0.4.jar(com/lowagie/text/Document.class)
class file has wrong version 48.0, should be 47.0
Please remove or make sure it appears in the correct subdirectory of the classpath.
import com.lowagie.text.Document;
                        ^
1 errorI am using JDK1.3 and JRE 1.6.Plz elaborate why ?