> I don't get one thing first of all. Why not moving to *all* Java 8 > without > the hassle of compiling with a platform and retrofitting to another? > What is the purpose of such a move? >
So that compatibility of build tools is narrower than that of runtime. One example is what java and maven versions apache's jenkins infrastructure supports imposes different constraints as to what are user base does. Also we can provide a standard secured build tool set over multiple branches that offer different runtime compatibilities. Like knowing I don't have to go find JDK1.7 to build and test before committing (or like having different jenkins builds to ensure we can build on both Java7 and Java8, etc etc) regards, Mick
