Distribution is Java 1.8

[snodnipper]

I note that the description of the current released software states that:

"The package compiles on Java 1.2 thru Java 1.4"

That software appears, however, to be compiled with 1.8, which means the dependency cannot be used with legacy software (inc. Android, which only officially supports 1.7).

It would be great to target 1.6/1.7 but if 1.8 was chosen for specific reasons then perhaps the documentation could be updated to reflect that?

[stleary]

@BGehrels Can you please update the POM file in the Maven repository to state that the package compiles with Java 1.8?

[stleary]

@snodnipper Can you please clarify in what ways the lib is incompatible for building with Android?

Can you compile and use the latest source code with the Java 1.7 JDK?

[BGehrels]

oh, yes, the sentence @snodnipper quoted was copied from the original README.md a long time ago. Since it is redundant to

        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.2</version>
            <configuration>
                <source>1.8</source>
                <target>1.8</target>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

I will probably remove it. This way i can't forget to update it with the next Java Major Release.

[johnjaylward]

I can't think of anything in the code that would prevent compiling on anything lower than java 1.5

1.8 was chosen somewhat arbitrarily it seems, and no new features from the 1.6, 1.7 or 1.8 release have been specifically used.

If we wanted to we could probably target a lower JDK version for the compilation target to better support backwards compatibility.

for Example:

        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.2</version>
            <configuration>
                <source>1.7</source>
                <target>1.7</target>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

[johnjaylward]

@stleary the compiled classes and jar released by @BGehrels would be targeting 1.8, but Android is run with class compatibility at 1.7. Jars compiled to 1.8 would not be able to run in an android environment I believe.

If @snodnipper compiled from source, there shouldn't be a problem.

[snodnipper]

To ensure widest compatibility on Android with other legacy systems, targeting 1.6 would be great. I note that spring, for instance, is still backwards compatible with Java 6.

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.3.2</version>
    <configuration>
        <source>1.6</source>
        <target>1.6</target>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

[johnjaylward]

ok, I found an instance where I used a java1.7 convention for exception handling in optEnum:

    public <E extends Enum<E>> E optEnum(Class<E> clazz, int index, E defaultValue) {
        try {
            Object val = this.opt(index);
            if (JSONObject.NULL.equals(val)) {
                return defaultValue;
            }
            if (clazz.isAssignableFrom(val.getClass())) {
                // we just checked it!
                @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
                E myE = (E) val;
                return myE;
            }
            return Enum.valueOf(clazz, val.toString());
        } catch (IllegalArgumentException | NullPointerException e) {
            return defaultValue;
        }
    }

Looks like the lowest we can go is 1.7 without changing code.

[snodnipper]

+1 - 1.7 seems like a reasonable compromise to me - that hits over 50% android devices (API 19 and above). Folk can always make a pull request or fork if 1.6 support is required.

[stleary]

Will leave this open for a few more days til the POM file comment is fixed. Otherwise, it looks like at least the JSON-java source code will compile with 1.7, which maintains compatibility with the latest Android release.

[stleary]

Hi @BGehrels, I see that the POM file at https://search.maven.org/#artifactdetails%7Corg.json%7Cjson%7C20150729%7Cjar has not been updated to remove the reference to Java 1.2-1.4. Is there any problem?

[BGehrels]

Maven artifacts are immutable once publisher. What i can do is to publish a new release (2015100X) from the same sources using an altered pom Description.

[stleary]

Thanks for the explanation. Since the Java build version is already specified, I think it should be OK to defer removing the line until the next release.