[badsectoracula]

> Java is probably the biggest "eternal" language we have these days

Is it? I haven't followed it in years but i remember reading about people sticking with Java 8 because later versions broke backwards compatibility in some cases.

[overtomanu]

Its a bit complicated, technically java language never broke backward compatibility. you can run existing java programs fine in higher java jvm's by adding extra command line parameters to include all existing libraries in default module. But it becomes complicated by the use of intermediate tools which are not updated to handle this.

[pjmlp]

Yep, modules were a big break, however all the relevant libraries that actually matter on the Java ecosystem are available on latest versions.

Basically it is the same kind of effect like school/university teachers whose idea of C++ is C with extras, and if they teach something more close to C++98 proper even in 2021, one should consider themselves lucky.