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

Remi Forax forax at univ-mlv.fr
Thu May 10 18:38:42 UTC 2018


Hi Joe,
this is really a big change, there are two good reason to not do that now:
- There is really a good chance that it will split the ecosystem because while Android as now adopted the OpenJDK, there are few phones that support the Android version built on top of the OpenJDK. As a library writer, i do not want to have to support two version of my library, the one compatible with 6, the once compatible with a more recent version of the OpenJDK.
  I agree with you that 6 is an old release but we should not base our decision only on the release date of 6 but also on the current state of the ecosystem.
- This is the kind of change that should be done at the start of the development of a release, with a notice before, and not in the middle of the development, here, you are changing the whole story of how to migrate to 11, i think developer deserves to be aware of this kind of change in advance.

The good news is that we are now only 4 months from the start of the development of 12, which is plenty of time to announce that the support of 6 in the compiler will be remove in 12 and not a long time to wait before actually doing the actual change.

regards, 
Rémi

----- Mail original -----
> De: "joe darcy" <joe.darcy at oracle.com>
> À: "jdk-dev" <jdk-dev at openjdk.java.net>
> Envoyé: Jeudi 10 Mai 2018 19:56:03
> Objet: Proposed implementation of JEP 182 in JDK 11: drop javac support for -source/-target/--release 6

> Hello,
> 
> As background, JEP 182 "Policy for Retiring javac -source and -target
> Options" (http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/182) puts forth a "one plus three
> back" policy for the supported range of -source and -target arguments to
> javac. (As of JDK 9, a matching range of arguments is supported for the
> --release option.)
> 
> This policy was formulated under the old release model before the six
> month release cadence.
> 
> Under this policy, support for the 5/1.5 argument was removed in JDK 9.
> JDK 10 added support for a 10 argument and retained all the older values
> that were supported under JDK 9.
> 
> JDK 6 first shipped at the end of 2006, which will be nearly 12 years
> before the planned JDK 11 GA date. JDK 7 first shipped in 2011.
> 
> 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. This provides support for four rather than three older
> versions in JDK 11, but better matches the time span of releases
> discussed in the JEP.
> 
> Future code reviews of the implementation of this removal and related work
> 
>     JDK-8028563: Remove javac support for 6/1.6 source and target values
>     JDK-8173606: Deprecate constructors of 7-era visitors
> 
> would take place on compiler-dev.
> 
> Comments?
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> -Joe


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