Proposed implementation of JEP 182 in JDK 11: drop javac support for -source/-target/--release 6

[dalibor topic]

On 14.05.2018 16:43, Remi Forax wrote:
> Hi Dalibor,
> 
> ----- Mail original -----
>> De: "dalibor topic" <dalibor.topic at oracle.com>
>> À: "jdk-dev" <jdk-dev at openjdk.java.net>
>> Envoyé: Lundi 14 Mai 2018 16:35:49
>> Objet: Re: Proposed implementation of JEP 182 in JDK 11: drop javac support for -source/-target/--release 6
> 
>> On 10.05.2018 19:56, joe darcy wrote:
>>> Given the age of JDK 6, I think it is reasonable in 2018 for JDK 11 to
>>> drop support for -source/-target/--release 1.6/6, leaving support for 7,
>>> 8, 9, 10, and 11.
>>
>> It would be nice to drop support for 9, as well, since it's done, and
>> its users should be moving on to 10.
> 
> Why only 9, if i follow you, we should also drop the support for 10 because when 11 will be out, 10 support will not be supported too.

That depends on whether someone steps up to maintain it, or not. We 
don't know that yet - it's a question that will only post itself after 
the second JDK 10 update. We do know that for 9 no one stepped up to 
maintain it after the second update, though, so it's done.

In any case, support for 10 in javac is useful for bootstrapping 11. So 
keeping it supported in the 11 javac keeps a botstrapping path available 
from 10 to 11.

Since one can't bootstrap 11 with 9, there is no equivalent argument for 
keeping support for 9 around. ;)

cheers,
dalibor topic

> I think it's better to drop the support of 9 and 10 when the support for 8 (the LTS) will be dropped.
> 
>>
>> cheers,
>> dalibor topic
> 
> Rémi
> 

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