Arrow Java currently compiles against Java 7 and it is time to plan an upgrade to a later compilation target. The most suitable candidate is Java 8 which according to Baeldung <http://www.baeldung.com/java-in-2017> reached *75% developer penetration* in 2017.
The immediate trigger for this discussion was Arrow 2015 - Use Java 8 Date and Time API instead of Joda Time <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ARROW-2015>*. *The Java 8 move would therefore be a prerequisite for that JIRA. Let's discuss any challenges for moving to Java 8. E.g. it was mentioned in the Jan 24th meetup that Java 8 impacted Javadoc generation. Thanks Dwight Gunning FINRA (Toronto)
