Hi all, Right now, when we build NetBeans, we’re using the javac from the JDK that we’re using to do the build — so that we’re dependent on the JDK team, which can decide to drop features.
If, instead, we were to set the compiler in NetBeans the build script, to nb-javac, which is available on Maven Central and is compatible with javac, and is used as part of NetBeans already at runtime, and runs on JDK 8 or later — unlike javac which is tied to the JDK against which we’re doing the build — we would be even more independent and we’d be able to build for future JDKs, we would not have a need for a minimum JDK. The module definition in project.properties of each module could define its javac target version. We could have a module using virtual threads, set to target 19, where it would be disable if not run on JDK 19. The Disco module, right now, cannot be compiled on JDK 8 because it sets its target to 11, though if nb-javac were used during the build, because nb-javac right now supports everything up to 19. So, switching to nb-javac sounds like a sensible thing — are there any objections, Jaroslav has a pull request. Gj
