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Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 23:57:16 +0200
From: Knut Anders Hatlen <Knut.Hatlen@Sun.COM>
Subject: Re: Requiring Java 5 compiler
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Rick Hillegas <Richard.Hillegas@Sun.COM> writes:

> You are right. The compiler won't let you compile from Java 5 source
> down to 1.4 classes. We would not be able to use Java 5 features in
> our old code. However, using the Java 5 compiler would make the
> following possible:
>
> 1) Optional optimizations of engine code to take advantage of features
> introduced by later VMs.
>
> 2) New tools which take advantage of extensions added in later
> versions of Java. E.g., JMX-based tools--JMX is included in J2SE from
> version 5.0 on.
>
> 3) Tests which verify that user code, built under later versions of
> Java, plays well when it runs inside Derby functions and procedures.

I'm +1 to this. I have added some 1.5 code by piggybacking on the
optional jdk16 target and setting source level to 1.5, which works, but
I think it is cleaner to require a Java 5 compiler. Unless there is a
major development platform that lacks a Java 5 compiler (I'm not aware
of any), I think you should go for it!

-- 
Knut Anders