NetBeans dev build change to JDK8 & merge of JDK9 branch

Hello all NB developers,

On *Monday, Nov 30th* there will be a change of NetBeans dev build to be 
run on JDK8.
The reasons for this change:

 1. JDK7 is no longer publicly supported, JDK8 is the available and
    supported version
     1. Number of users running NB on JDK7 is going down significantly
 2. JDK8 compilation allows NetBeans to run with JDK9 EA builds

Java 9 is under development and we have more and more users who ask us 
they want to experiment with NB on top of JDK9 or use JDK9 as NB Java 
Platform. Therefore, we will also merge an early support for JDK9 EA 
builds (https://jdk9.java.net/download/) to Dev builds. To satisfy this 
we are switching the build to JDK8. To be able to use jrtfs.jar from NB. 
Changes in this merge, approx 142 *.java files, should not impact 
modules outside Java support too much. This merge does not support "JDK9 
EA with Project Jigsaw" builds.

Tomas Zezula fixed the build to run on JDK8. We work with selected 
developers for each team repo to make sure tests are running as well on 
JDK8.

What will follow:

 1. We will confirm the JDK8 build switch date no later than on Fri 11/27
 2. On Mon 11/30 we will ask all developers to hold on pushes to their
    team repos to allow faster propagation of JDK8 build and merger of
    JDK9 EA through team repos and main-silver
 3. Likely Development build of NetBeans will not be available for
    several days.
 4. Be ready to fix some issues in your tests/code caused by new build
    JDK8 or by JDK9 branch merge

Comments, questions, let me know

Thank you Martin Balin,
Development Manager
NetBeans Java support team