It was a response to "I am sure that some of the Maven developers would like to use some of the new Java features to make the coding easier."
For the Maven (core) developers to take advantage of the newer features, we would need to up the <source> level we compile core with. JavaC will allow <source> less than <target> but not the other way around, so if we want to use the newer features in core, we force all Maven users to have to run core with a newer version of Maven. At this point in time I do not see any compelling features in 1.7 which are worth the difference. If it turns out that a core library we use needs a newer version of Java because that core library needed the newer language features, then we would have to consider upgrading core to use the newer version of that core library. The only feature in 1.7 that we would benefit from is the try with resources... which is not that big a difference. 1.8's lambdas is a different story though... but it will likely be a good while before we can consider alienating all the pre 1.8 users On 29 November 2012 18:14, Ron Wheeler <rwhee...@artifact-software.com>wrote: > On 29/11/2012 12:48 PM, Stephen Connolly wrote: > > 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 > > Not sure that I understand how this follows. > > The target compiler should not determine the Java VM that Maven runs in. > I believe that I can compile 1.5 while running maven in a Java 7 VM. > > Ron > > > > 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 >> >> > > > -- > Ron Wheeler > President > Artifact Software Inc > email: rwhee...@artifact-software.com > skype: ronaldmwheeler > phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102 > >
