TWS 10.37.1m targets JDK 17

[bsdice]

TWS stable offline version 10.37.1m released today targets no longer JDK 8 but 17:

class file has wrong version 61.0, should be 52.0

I use now

<javac srcdir="${src}" destdir="${target}/classes" release="17" includeantruntime="false">

together with

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-17-openjdk

There is another deprecation warning

IBC/src/ibcalpha/ibc/CommandDispatcher.java:31: warning: [deprecation] getMenuShortcutKeyMask() in Toolkit has been deprecated [javac] private final static int SHORTCUT_MODIFIERS = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getMenuShortcutKeyMask() | KeyEvent.ALT_DOWN_MASK;

which I replaced with

private static final int SHORTCUT_MODIFIERS = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getMenuShortcutKeyMaskEx() | KeyEvent.ALT_DOWN_MASK;

[rlktradewright]

Sorry for the delay in responding to this. I started writing this reply some time ago, and then forgot about it...

First, TWS has been targetting JDK 17 since at least 10.37.1i, and quite possibly before that. I installed that version on 2 November.

Secondly, you don't have to do anything to cope with this: just install the updated TWS, and it all just works. I hadn't even noticed the change. I've installed 10.37.1m on Windows 11, Ubuntu 24.04 and RaspBerry Pi 6.12.47, and it works fine on all of them.

So as far as I'm concerned, there is no issue here.

Now I'm wondering why, and where, you got the 'wrong version' message? I don't see this.

I also don't see any need to export JAVA_HOME. Why do you do this?

Thanks for pointing out the deprecation of getMenuShortcutKeyMask(). I use NetBeans for my Java Development and have been unable to persuade it to flag such things, but I'll fix it in the next release.

[bsdice]

Hey Rich, no worries thank you for taking the time.

I think I know what the "problem" here was. I was using JDK 8 still (using JAVA_HOME), while you probably had JDK 17+ already in place. Which understood the new TWS jar version, but also how to target for JDK 8. I switched to JDK 17 to match TWS and changed source="8" target="8" to release="17" in build.xml. Meanwhile you are still producing IBC jars which target JDK 8 but which TWS's JDK 17 runtime still understands. Does that make sense.

I build IBC from my own Forgejo because IBC has become essential for my investment process. If Github or this repo ever goes away, I don't want to be affected.

Using OpenJDK 17.0.17.u10 produced the deprecation warning. Straight out of running ant.

Once getMenuShortcutKeyMask fix is in place, this can be closed I think.

[rlktradewright]

When you install TWS or Gateway, it includes a 'hidden' installation of the version of the JRE that TWS/Gateway was built with. The IBKR scripts and the IBC scripts automatically use this hidden version of the JRE. Therefore there is no need for the user to maintain any other Java installation for the purpose of running TWS or Gateway (and the hidden version requires no user attantion).

And when IBKR release an updated version of TWS/Gateway, there is no action needed by the IBC user apart from installing it: if it uses a later version of Java (as with the recent move to Java 17) that version has already been installed and will be used automatically.

In fact I have never installed JDK 17 or JRE 17 on any of my computers (except my Raspberry Pi, which is a special case because it is an ARM-based processor).

I've only ever installed Java 8 SDK (Oracle) because that's what I use for NetBeans. I don't do any other Java development apart from IBC, so that's all I need. Once I'm convinced that no current version of TWS still uses Java 8 (which will probably be very soon), I'll move to Java 17.

I know I'm being very cautious, but I want to avoid the situation where an IBC user is blown out of the water because they're somehow still using a version of TWS/Gateway that needs Java 8. I suspect that is not a viable scenario, but until IBKR outlaws versions older tthan 10.37.1i, I won't risk it.