Re: Requiring JDK 1.4 (Was Re: svn commit: r26872 - trunk/subversion/bindings/javahl/src/org/tigris/subversion/javahl)

On Mon, 01 Oct 2007, Mark Phippard wrote:

> On 10/1/07, Daniel Rall <dlr@collab.net> wrote:
> > > >>>What is the oldest version of Java we support?
> > > >>
> > > >>subversion/bindings/javahl/README says 1.3.
> > > >
> > > >How about we move to Java 1.4 for svn 1.5. Java 1.3.x has reached
> > > >end-of-life (except for Solaris 8 users, which have till October 2009; I
> > > >wouldn't want to support 1.4 for 2 more years).
> > >
> > > s/support 1.4/support 1.3/.
> >
> > I'd be +1 with that, but can't spend time on it ATM. Blair, if you
> > want to spearhead that effort, by all means... :)
>
> I thought we were supporting 1.2 ? I am fine with moving to 1.4. I
> believe the build system enforces the version now in the compiler
> settings, so that is probably all that needs to change.

JAVAC_FLAGS = -g -target 1.2 -source 1.3

Looks like we're currently source-compatible with 1.3, but are
byte-compiling for 1.2 JVM.

> Is there any issue on Linux where open source compilers (gcj, jikes)
> are used? Do they all support 1.4 and have the necessary runtime
> libraries?

jikes is a compiler, and depends on the classes from an external JRE.
http://jikes.sourceforge.net/faq/user-index.shtml#jikespath

gcj used to have similar characteristics, but these days is bundling
GNU Classpath, and is itself something more than just a compiler.