If it's possible to support 1.1 in a project, then why not? My software 3D engine supports 1.1. too. A software renderer (i guess Absolution is talking about one...) doesn't need Java2 features (let alone 1.4 stuff). All it does is drawing pixels into an integer array. Whatever you do with this pixel-data is up to you...no one prevents you from using it in a Swing-application for example. But there is simply no need for anything higher than 1.1 for this purpose, so why disregard it?
Anyway, back to the topic: I don't have anything to add except that i'm doing exactly the same thing. I'm using floats all the way but converting them to fixed-point in the rasterizer.
Edit: Actually, i AM supporting Java2, because i'm using a BufferedImage in case of Java2 and a MemoryImageSource in case of 1.1...
