Java version 1.5?

[Mark Evenson]

On 2015/4/20 03:53, Blake McBride wrote:
> Looking over the ant build (build.xml), it seems like the target and source
> are set to Java 1.5.  Isn't it time we changed it to at least 1.7?

Currently, ABCL targets JRE 5 onwards, which is why we build with these
flags set.

Despite the [as of May 2015 Oracle end-of-life pronouncement][1] for all
versions of Java prior to JRE 8, many organizations are still using
these supposedly EOL platforms for production, so I believe it is
important to continue to support them as long it doesn't penalize ABCL
somehow on newer JRE platforms.

[1]: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/eol-135779.html

As far as I can determine from reading available documentation, changing
the target and source compiler options would not produce any more
efficient code for the newer Java platforms.  Such a change would only
prevent our binary releases from running on EOL platforms.

When we rewrite the compiler to target the JRE 6 verifier or the JRE 7
bytecode support for dynamic method dispatch (aka JSR 292) in the Lisp
compiler, then I think it makes sense to revisit this position.

One is of course free to change these options in your local
compilations.  If anyone can show any changes with different targets,
please let us know.


-- 
"A screaming comes across the sky.  It has happened before, but there
is nothing to compare to it now."