You only get the new language features from after 1.5 if target > 1.5, so switching core to use the newer features would make core incompatible with running on 1.5
On 29 November 2012 17:25, Ron Wheeler <rwhee...@artifact-software.com>wrote: > On 29/11/2012 12:01 PM, Curtis Rueden wrote: > >> Hi Ron, >> >> > Is it not possible to run Maven in a JRE7 VM and compile code with a >> > 1.3 compiler? >> >> If you have a JRE7 VM available, then sure. If JRE7 is not available for >> your platform, then it must remain possible to run Maven with an older JRE, >> or else no more Maven for you. I do not know enough about Maven internals >> to know if it would be feasible to increase the default source/target >> version to 1.7 while keeping Maven core itself compatible with 1.5, though. >> From Jochen & Stephen's exchange, it sounds like maybe not. If so, then my >> vote is for Maven core to remain compatible with Java 1.5, as Stephen >> suggested. >> > > I would be surprised if this is true since it is certainly possible to > compile with Java7 and to run Maven in a Java7 VM. I would not expect > changing a default value to affect the running of Maven. > I certainly am not suggesting doing anything to Maven itself that would > make it so that it would not run in a Java5 VM > I am sure that some of the Maven developers would like to use some of the > new Java features to make the coding easier. > > > Ron > > >> > What keeps people on old versions for over 8 years(1.5)? >> >> One reason is old hardware. For example, if you have a Mac PowerPC, you >> are stuck on OS X 10.5 "Leopard", which will never run Java 7. Another >> reason is old software. If you run OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard", you are stuck >> with Java 6, since the OpenJDK7 and Oracle JDK 7 projects decided to >> require 10.7 "Lion" or newer. This might be OK if upgrading were free, >> and/or if Lion were strictly an "upgrade", but it actually removes >> functionality (e.g., Rosetta). >> >> When deciding whether to start requiring Java 6 for some of our OSS >> projects, we took at look at our usage statistics, and found that (as of ~1 >> year ago) more than 10% of our total user base ran OS X 10.5 or earlier. So >> we decided to wait a bit longer. >> >> Regards, >> Curtis >> > > > -- > Ron Wheeler > President > Artifact Software Inc > email: rwhee...@artifact-software.com > skype: ronaldmwheeler > phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102 > >
