Re: Java > 1.5

[Andrew Haley <aph@redhat.com>]

On 15/08/14 18:54, Ruben De Smet wrote:
> Dear java@gcc.gnu.org list,
> 
> I've gotten to compile some things with GCJ (hooray!) which don't run
> fine (ooooh). If I don't come to run it on my own, I'll certainly file a
> bug report or contact this list.
> 
> I would like to avoid having to distribute a Java runtime to users, but
> my teammate is writing code in Java 1.7. I read GCJ only understands 1.5.
> 
> Is there any development going on for Java 1.7? Would it be a lot of
> work to implement some Java 1.7 features? I would take it on me if needed.

Right now there's not much prospect of that.  The problem is the class
libraries, which would require a lot of work. The best prospect is to
convert libgcj to use the libraries from OpenJDK, which would work,
but again the conversion would take maybe 6 months for someone who
knows gcj very well, along with some compiler changes.  It could be
done, but there needs to be a compelling reason.

> There were two things I noticed with my teammates code that were using
> 1.7 features. @Override on interfaces and multi exception catch (like
> catch (IOException | OtherException e) ).

I'm sure it's possible.

Andrew.