Eclipse support for Java7

Good news for Eclipse users is that all new builds of Eclipse 3.7.1, 3.8 and 4.2 will now fully support Java 7.
Earlier development of Java7 support in Eclipse was being done in BETA_JAVA7 branch which now has been fully merged into the HEAD and the R3_7_maintenance branch.


So the implication is that if you want Java7 support, you need to move to the latest builds of Eclipse Indigo (3.7.x) or higher. Cannot use Eclipse Helios (3.6.x) or even the initial versions of Indigo as the older JDT & Core packages do not understand the new Java7 features as Eclipse uses its own compiler and the ones built into older versions of Eclipse do not support Java 7. Also, as noted in the Project Plan For Eclipse Project, version Helios, support for Java 7 is deferred and decoupled from the 3.6 release since Java 7 release will be after the official release of 3.7.

Note that you will need to download a 3.7 maintenance build (>= M20110729-1400), a 3.8 build (>= I20110729-1200), a 4.1 maintenance build (coming soon) or a recent 4.2 build (>= I20110729-0200) to get Java7 support in Eclipse.