Java Support Considerations for the Eclipse IDE

Java 8 Support

When you install Enterprise Developer with Eclipse 3.8 on a machine that has Java 8 installed:

• JRE 8 is not in the list of execution environments in the New COBOL JVM Project dialog when you create COBOL JVM projects or in Window > Preferences > Java > Installed JREs > Execution Environments. This is an issue with the Eclipse IDE.

  In the IDE preferences, for every relevant execution environment, you can enable jre8 as the compatible JRE.

  When you create COBOL JVM projects, in order to use jre8 click Use a project specific JRE (or Use default JRE if the default JRE is jre8).

• You may receive non-critical warnings about the maxPermSize (a parameter that controls the size of memory for class execution) when you launch Enterprise Developer. This message is only informative and does not indicate a problem - Java 8 no longer uses maxPermSize and relies on a different mechanism to calculate the memory for class execution. If you want to stop receiving the warnings, delete the -XX:MaxPermSize=512M line from the eclipse.ini file in %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Micro Focus\Enterprise Developer\installer.
• Some items on the drop-down menu for the Search button in the Eclipse toolbar might not be available.

The following restrictions apply if you install Enterprise Developer into Eclipse 3.7.1 on a machine that has Java 8 installed:

• COBOL for JVM is not supported - features such as indexing do not work correctly and certain Java Code classes are not accessible.
• JRE 8 is not available in the list of execution environments in the New COBOL JVM Project dialog when you create COBOL JVM projects or in Window > Preferences > Java > Installed JREs > Execution Environments. This is an issue with the Eclipse IDE.

  In the IDE preferences, it is not possible to enable jre8 as the compatible JRE for the supported execution environments.

  When you create COBOL JVM projects, in order to use jre8, click Use a project specific JRE (or Use default JRE if the default JRE is jre8).

• You may receive non-critical warnings about the maxPermSize (a parameter that controls the size of memory for class execution) when you launch Enterprise Developer. This message is only informative and does not indicate a problem - Java 8 no longer uses maxPermSize and relies on a different mechanism to calculate the memory for class execution. If you want to stop receiving the warnings, delete the -XX:MaxPermSize=512M line from the eclipse.ini file in %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Micro Focus\Enterprise Developer\installer.
• Some items on the drop-down menu for the Search button in the Eclipse toolbar might not be available.

Java 7 Support

Enterprise Developer with Eclipse 3.8 provides full support for Java 7.