Hey all, just wondering, why is kotlin stuck on Java 8? Why doesn't it start targeting newer version...

# getting-started

[Emery Tanghanwaye]

Hey all, just wondering, why is kotlin stuck on Java 8? Why doesn't it start targeting newer versions?

[ephemient]

as far as the Java bytecode is concerned, there isn't actually much new. most of the new features have been in the Java language and API

[ephemient]

the only new useful feature might be nestmates. https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/KT-27182

[ephemient]

Kotlin isn't even using invokedynamic from Java 8 yet, it would be useful for lambdas (https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/KT-26060) and string concatenation (https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/KT-21147)

[ephemient]

the `@JvmDefault`/`-Xjvm-default` stuff is still getting settled (https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/KT-25491, also a Java 8 feature)

[ephemient]

project valhalla is much bigger than any of the above, but it isn't landed yet

[ephemient]

I definitely do not speak for the K team, I'm just a user. but I do not see any strong reason to target newer Java versions yet.

[Michael de Kaste]

Sometimes I do miss a standard library function that does not exist in Java 8 yet, but they could definitely target a newer version somewhere in the future

[ephemient]

there's nothing stopping you from calling new Java APIs though? if you want to use the new <http://java.net|java.net>.http (for example), just go ahead and use it, no Kotlin support needed. that has nothing to do with the target version

[Matteo Mirk]

yeah many people are still confusing che bytecode specification with the JDK…

[Michael de Kaste]

That is true; I keep them conflated because sites like codewars only specify kotlin version, which use the java 8 api.

For personal project I do use newer java versions