[hibernate-dev] Java 6, 7 and 8... oh my!

[Steve Ebersole]

So we now have to deal with a multi-jdk build in Hibernate ORM.  We need
Java 8 in order to compile the new hibernate-java8 module.

I wanted to remain compatible with Java 6 for the rest.  However, I ran
into a snag there because of JAXB which we now use (in conjunction with
StAX) to process XML in ORM.  ANyway, the JAX generation creates a model
that is only compatible with Java 7.  I have not yet had time to
investigate this deeply.  But it has to do with a change in the definition
of javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElement and a change in its definition
between 1.6 and 1.7 to add a new
attribute javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElement#required.

If anyone is familiar with this situation, I'd love to hear some options
before I spend a lot of time investigating it.

The other option is that we say we are going to drop Java 6 support since
it has been unsupported now for, what, 3 years?