Hey Everyone,
Right now I’ve got Java 1.5 SDK on my computer. I wanted to compile for 1.3, so I did this:
javac -source 1.3 -target 1.3 *.java
It successfully compiled without giving any errors.
However, the program didn’t run. Why?
Because I called the String.contains(String) method, which wasn’t introduced until 1.4.
Why doesn’t it catch this?
Thanks.
-target 1.x makes the bytecode compatible with prior 1.5 bytecode standard. It does not check if you are using individiual methods that has been introduced later than your target flag.
[quote]-target 1.x makes the bytecode compatible with prior 1.5 bytecode standard. It does not check if you are using individiual methods that has been introduced later than your target flag.
[/quote]
For this to happen you need specifiy the switch “bootclasspath” (I think) with the rt.jar (?) of the old version.
I think we did this a long time ago at work, but can’t remember the details anymore.