Add Android 5 support

[ruthan]

Hello, i have nice, now retro console Nvidie Shield portable, its limited to Android 5, when i try to install apk, im getting that package is corrupted, but when i try same binary install on my phone with Android 8 its fine.. so its probably problem with older Android version.

[DjThunder]

Ok I will give a try with an emulated device.

[DjThunder]

Hum, the best I can do it targeting API 24 (Nougat, 7). I'm using too much java 8 features, (especially default keyword, which will need refactoring to avoid it). I will keep it in backlog, depending of my free time, I may try to reach this compatibility, but it is mainly on my engine side.

[ruthan]

Im not Android developer, older Android cant use newer Java, its somehow connected? Java should be multiplatform, even i why that is not requiring too much from host OS, on quite old Windows or Linux i still can use very old and new Javas.

[DjThunder]

Unfortunately, new language features were added since Java 7, supported by Android with some tricks, and more native since Android ~7, but since Java 8, sync has never been fully done, so only a part of Java 8 can be backported to older Android (because possible during bytecode generation), which is not the case with all Java 8 features (such as default interface, which are more complex than a simple language trick in the bytecode side).

Some years ago, my engine was fully Java 6, compatible with Android API 5. But because of interesting new Java features, I decided to move forward until Java 8, and then requiring Android 24, which was enough for my personal usage.

But be aware I will do my best to make it work.