This is a follow-up on a previous similar thread https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/2e1890c62d9f022f09b20e9f12f130fe9f1042e391979087f725d2e0@%3Cuser.beam.apache.org%3E in which the community consistently expressed support for transitioning Beam Java to Java8-only.
Now that the release of Beam 2.2.0 has completed, we are considering performing this change specifically in the immediate next release: Beam 2.3.0, i.e. dropping support for Java 7 without a bump in the major version of Beam. The reasons for switching to Java 8 in general are considered in the thread above. The reasons in favor of making the switch in Beam 2.3.0 are as follows: - It is believed that usage of Java 7 in production is already vanishingly small. - Since Java 7 has not been receiving even security updates for years, helping perpetuate its usage would be a bad idea - A major version bump is a major step and would likely happen only after a large number of other major changes in Beam accumulate - i.e. many months. Maintaining Java 7 compatibility for that long would have costs, including the awkward possibility of switching Beam to Java 8 after Java 8's end of life (September 2018 AFAIK) - Updating to Java 8 would lead to Beam more quickly gaining more Java8-friendly APIs, because Beam SDK authors and contributors would have more liberty, more responsibility and more experience with working in the context of Java8. Delaying until Beam 3.0 would delay this as well. With that in mind, we'd like to poll the Beam community to gather information about usage of Java 7 and Java 8 in production. Please vote: Option 1. I am already using only Java 8+ for building my production Beam code. Option 2. I am using Java 7 for building my production Beam code, but I would have no trouble with the switch to Java 8 [e.g. my transition to Java 8 would be easy and/or I don't expect that I'll have strong reasons to upgrade to Beam 2.3 anyway]. Option 3. I am using Java 7 for building my production Beam code, and dropping Java 7 would be a blocker or hindrance to adopting the new release for me [e.g. I expect that I'll have strong reasons to update to Beam 2.3, but I expect that it will be difficult because of lack of Java 7 support]
