I had problem with configuring maven. I want to compile some project to Java 1.4. After some I found following configuration which is really working:
<!-- Strictly speaking, we did not need to generate this for you from the prototype, but we use it to illustrate how you can get the JDK 6 Java compiler to accept 1.5 or 1.6 targeted source code but produce class files that are compatible with JRE 1.4. As Michael Caine might not say, "Not a lot of people know that!" --> <plugin> <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId> <version>2.0.2</version> <configuration> <source>1.6</source> <target>jsr14</target> <sourceDirectory>src</sourceDirectory> </configuration> </plugin>
It's not my idea. I wrote down this example long time ago. Now I can't found place where I originally found it. Sorry.