#2792 [ANN] F4 v1.1.4 - Fantom IDE

SlimerDude Sat 16 May 2020

Binaries for the latest F4 1.1.4 Fantom IDE release are now available on GitHub:

F4 releases on GitHub

https://github.com/xored/f4/releases

The latest codebase has been put through its paces over the past couple of weeks and it seems stable enough for a general release.

Differences from F4 1.1.4 RC2:

  • the internal project manager is more intelligent with project dependencies
  • f4.ini defines larger default JVM memory heap sizes (now -Xms256m and -Xmx1024m - thanks Jay!)

Text from the GitHub release:

Main F4 1.1.4 Features

  • Eclipse platform updated to Eclipse 4.9 2018-09 (from 4.6)
  • DLTK updated to 5.10 (from 5.6)
  • Fantom compiler updated to Fantom 1.0.74 (from 1.0.71)
  • Embedded Fantom runtime updated to Fantom 1.0.74 (from 1.0.71)

This means F4 now runs on any current version of Java!

The last point removes the build churn previously encountered when opening and closing projects and editing build.fan files. In essence, F4 1.1.4 is much faster in a multi-project environment.

Note: On Windows, you may need to run F4 as an administrator.

Some Essential Plugins

Well, they're essential to me at least!

Why Eclipse 4.9 (2018-09) ??

Simply put, I've been unable to compile or assemble F4 with anything later. Here's a summary of incompatibilities:

  • Eclipse 4.10 (2018-12) and DLTK 5.11
  • Eclipse 4.11 (2019-03) and DLTK 5.11
  • Eclipse 4.12 (2019-06) and DLTK 5.11
  • Eclipse 4.13 (2019-09) and DLTK 5.11
  • Eclipse 4.14 (2019-12) and DLTK 5.11

There were no compilation issues with these later eclipse platforms, but the maven build to assemble the binaries would FAIL after a warning about a missing tool in the build chain.

  • Eclipse 4.15 (2020-03) and DLTK 6.1

As you may imagine, the majour update in the DLTK version brings about many compilation issues.

Therefore F4 will have to stay at Eclipse 4.9 until further investigation can be performed. But with 4.9 working with at least JDK 14, I hope this won't be an issue for most people.

Have fun,

Steve.

small_petit Sun 17 May 2020

Thanks SlimerDude.

I have downloaded my system version. Thanks once again.

CretinHo Thu 17 Jun 2021

The Linux x86 version is very unstable. Don't use it.

The Linux x86_64 version is rock, though. We shouldn't develop on a 32 bit only machine anyway. x86_64 with more RAM is more suitable for Java.

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