Question

I’m aware of the class file format change using -target 1.6 (which is required when you use -source 1.6). But does the source option specifically change anything or enable any new features?

Answer 1

From the javac documentation:

1.6 – This is the default value. No language changes were introduced in Java SE 6. However, encoding errors in source files are now reported as errors, instead of warnings, as previously.