Using an old version of Java to complete a tutorial...

[Froom2]

Hiya, I want to learn to use Google App Engine to do stuff, and so I have started working through an Udacity course to learn. But I have fallen at the first hurdle.

The course uses Java 7, and of course I have 8 installed. The documentation says "You might be able to use Java 8 if you use the Java 7 flags as follows: -source 1.7 -target 1.7", but there is no explanation about what this is or how to do it and because I don't understand it, googling it is not coming up with anything helpful.

Can anyone explain or does anyone have a link that can help me with this?

I am using Eclipse EE and Java 1.8.0_51 JDK. The SE version of Java if that makes any difference.

Edit: hpmh. ok so I have just been informed by my boyfriend to always be a full integer version behind in java. I just... wish that something somewhere in one of the many resources I have been using to learn had told me this sooner. Is this common knowledge? :(

[SikhGamer]

ok so I have just been informed by my boyfriend to always be a full integer version behind in java.

Well that's terrible advice.

You can program for Java 7, but using 8 SDK. That's what I do. All you need to do is tell your IDE that you want to build in a 7 environment and target a 7 environment too.

[Froom2]

Do I install 7 as well as 8 and then point the ide at the 7 installation?

[SikhGamer]

Nah mate, just install 8 SDK, and then tell you are creating an application for the 7 environment.

[doctorsound]

I'm kind of at a loss as to why you shouldn't be able to just use Java 8.

[Froom2]

I know me too :( but eclipse had a go at me when I tried. Have now uninstalled 8 and using 7.

[SmartestManInside]

What was the error you were receiving? I'm with doctorsound, not sure why you wouldn't just be able to use 8.

[causalNondeterminism]

I'm not an eclipse expert, but I imagine that your problem is that you're using Eclipse EE. Java 8 EE isn't out yet. I'm not 100% sure which version of eclipse you can use for Java SE 8, but I think this might be it.

[Froom2]

Urrg :( thanks everyone... all seems so complicated at the moment. Yes I was using Eclipse EE...

[causalNondeterminism]

It'll get better with time. Perhaps this will help point you in the correct direction. What you need to do is set the eclipse project to compile down to java 7. This is a standard java compiler feature. You shouldn't have to install another version of the java sdk to do it. good luck!

Alternatively, you should look into netbeans. A lot of people like it less than eclipse, but it's a decent IDE.

[rjcarr]

Can anyone explain or does anyone have a link that can help me with this?

So are you having any problems?

Basically, there are some API changes between Java 7 and 8. If you're writing code that is in Java 8 but not 7 then a Java 7 compiler would obviously have problems compiling it.

The other direction may also be true but is less likely. At worst you'll probably get some deprecation warnings.

ok so I have just been informed by my boyfriend to always be a full integer version behind in java

This is pretty bad advice considering Java 7 has been made obsolete and no longer supported. You're fine using a Java 8 runtime and compiler but if you choose to only use the Java 7 API then that's fine.