Which version of the Java JDK should I be using with MALLET?

Question

I regularly use MALLET for topic modeling in the classes that I teach. Running MALLET requires users to have the Java Development Kit installed. I currently have JDK 8 update 241 installed on my main computer, and I know that MALLET works properly in this environment. That said, JDK is now up to v14.

Which version(s) of JDK does MALLET support?

Answer 1

I'm not altogether sure that you do need the JDK. They never say that on the website. The tarfile that I downloaded already includes compiled classes - you aren't expected to build it from source - so the JRE should be enough.

Strangely enough, the compiled classes in the class directory are targeted at 1.7 (bytecode version 51) whereas the pom indicates that it's supposed to target Java 1.6. So it's quite probable that by rebuilding it you could support an older version of Java.

In any case, the JDK is backwards compatible by design. Any version from 7 onwards will be able to run it (6+ if you were to rebuild it).

Running it on a newer version will benefit from the new features of the JDK, such as improvements to the garbage collector, so you may see some performance improvement there. If you are not concerned about that then it doesn't matter.