Maybe we'll see longer support for people who don't migrate (heck, SBT still uses 2.10.x), but justifying it by Java version is weird.
If you're okay with using old Java versions, it's not much of a stretch to say you'll be okay with old Scala versions.
No, because Scala doesn't offer forward binary or source compatibility. Maintainers of widely-used Java libraries can write and build for Java 6 and be confident their libraries will be usable by everyone (on Android and off). Maintainers of widely-used Scala libraries have no such option (for now they can write their code using the subset that works in Scala 2.11 and 2.12 and cross-build, but there's no guarantee that such a subset will be maintained in 2.13 and beyond).
There's no guarantee about Java either. This class compiles with Java 7, but not with Java 8:
class SampleClass {
static class Baz<T> {
public static java.util.List<Baz<Object>> sampleMethod(Baz<Object> param) {
return null;
}
}
private static void bar(Baz arg) {
Baz element = Baz.sampleMethod(arg).get(0);
}
}
Ok, but you can compile it with the newer compiler by passing -source 1.7, right? And you can call into it from 1.8 code?
Thanks for your support!