Issues with Open JDK 7 on Snow Leopard (and Netbeans)

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Bill Robertson

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May 6, 2012, 1:06:29 PM5/6/12
to The Java Posse
My macbook is about three years old now. I've heard stories about
people with similarly old machines that didn't really do well under
Lion. So I'm reluctant to upgrade.

I downloaded the Sun's JDK 7 u 4 for OS X, but its Lion only. The
error message is "The installer is supported only on OS X Lion
(10.7.0)" There's an open jdk build for snow leopard of for jdk 7u4,
and I've been trying the latest netbeans with that, but the results
are a bit mixed.

It basically works, but there are some things in the ui that don't
quite work right. For example, when I hit f6 to run the program, it
runs it twice. However, if you select 'run' from the menu then its
ok. Another issue that I noticed is that I can't scroll the palette
in the gui designer. The scrollbar always snaps back to the middle
when trying to scroll.

I relaunched the new netbeans under java 6 and these issues disappear,
so I doubt that its an issue with Netbeans.

Has anybody else run into this? Heard of it? Any known work arounds?

Thanks

Fabrizio Giudici

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May 6, 2012, 2:34:42 PM5/6/12
to The Java Posse, Bill Robertson
On Sun, 06 May 2012 19:06:29 +0200, Bill Robertson
<billrob...@gmail.com> wrote:


> Has anybody else run into this? Heard of it? Any known work arounds?

Currently OpenJDK 7 is still buggy and I don't think you can run Netbeans
on it in an affordable way. In any case, it's much better than two months
ago, when it was almost impossibile to do everything. So, I'd say that
it's a matter of time in order to have a working OpenJDK.

PS Concerning NetBeans, I suppose you tried the latest 7.1.2.

--
Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager
Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere."
fabrizio...@tidalwave.it
http://tidalwave.it - http://fabriziogiudici.it

Bill Robertson

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May 6, 2012, 4:09:40 PM5/6/12
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Yes, it is NB 7.1.2. Thanks for the info on OpenJDK.

Most of the application is written in Clojure anyway. I'm doing the
GUI in NB for expediency. So not having JDK 7 improvements for Java
isn't that much of a problem.

On May 6, 2:34 pm, "Fabrizio Giudici" <Fabrizio.Giud...@tidalwave.it>
wrote:
> On Sun, 06 May 2012 19:06:29 +0200, Bill Robertson
>
> <billrobertso...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Has anybody else run into this? Heard of it? Any known work arounds?
>
> Currently OpenJDK 7 is still buggy and I don't think you can run Netbeans
> on it in an affordable way. In any case, it's much better than two months
> ago, when it was almost impossibile to do everything. So, I'd say that
> it's a matter of time in order to have a working OpenJDK.
>
> PS Concerning NetBeans, I suppose you tried the latest 7.1.2.
>
> --
> Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager
> Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere."
> fabrizio.giud...@tidalwave.ithttp://tidalwave.it-http://fabriziogiudici.it

Ricky Clarkson

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May 6, 2012, 4:47:57 PM5/6/12
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I suppose you couldn't really expect Oracle to test Java 7 against Netbeans before release. I mean, that would probably involve inter-hand communication possibly involving lawyers and a table reorg.

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Bill Robertson

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May 6, 2012, 4:54:04 PM5/6/12
to The Java Posse
I'm not running on an officially supported platform, so actually yeah
I didn't really expect them to test for my case. :-)

I hope that NB works on Lion though with the official JDK 7, that
would be disappointing if it didn't.

On May 6, 4:47 pm, Ricky Clarkson <ricky.clark...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I suppose you couldn't really expect Oracle to test Java 7 against Netbeans
> before release. I mean, that would probably involve inter-hand
> communication possibly involving lawyers and a table reorg.
> On May 6, 2012 5:09 PM, "Bill Robertson" <billrobertso...@gmail.com> wrote:

fabrizio...@tidalwave.it

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May 6, 2012, 5:08:43 PM5/6/12
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> I suppose you couldn't really expect Oracle to test Java 7 against Netbeans before release. I mean, that would probably involve inter-hand communication possibly involving lawyers and a table reorg.

I don't understand that statement. NetBeans 7.1.2 seems to be fine with Oracle JDK 7u4 on Mac OS X. The problems are with OpenJDK, which is not handled by Oracle, but by the community, and there has not been an official release of it yet.
 
--
Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager
Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere."

Ricky Clarkson

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May 6, 2012, 6:54:24 PM5/6/12
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I guess I'm a bit hazy on the distinction between the Oracle JDK and the OpenJDK as of version 7.  I thought that was the version in which they were supposed to merge now that the old binary plugs had been rewritten.  Wikipedia seems to alternate between treating them as separate and identical.

Oracle still seems to handle OpenJDK, but they accept code contributions from the community.

Martijn Verburg

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May 7, 2012, 4:22:08 AM5/7/12
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Hi Ricky,

The OpenJDK is the RI for Java as of Java 7. However, OpenJDK
binaries are *not* built and supported by Oracle officially, they
package their own binaries (which a majority of the world uses). Other
downstream OpenJDK packagers such as RedHat and Debian build OpenJDK
binaries (e.g. IcedTea) and I believe provide some nominal support.

Code-wise the two are very, very similar, Oracle only has a couple of
proprietary pieces on top of the OpenJDK. They generally put bug fixes
into the OpenJDK first, which then goes into the next update release
of their binary (e.g. 7u4), however sometimes this is reversed (in the
case of security bugs especially I think).

If you're experiencing a bug with using Netbeans and the OpenJDK then
please to report it to bugs DB and/or the appropriate OpenJDK mailing
list, the two should play nicely together.

For those looking to get into the OpenJDK (especially now that it's
the RI), see our new Adopt OpenJDK program:
http://java.net/projects/jugs/pages/AdoptOpenJDK

Cheers,
Martijn

Ricky Clarkson

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May 7, 2012, 8:51:26 AM5/7/12
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Thanks for the clarification Martijn.  I personally haven't had that problem, just a bad interaction with a Cisco VPN, which I know Oracle are already aware of and may have fixed.

Fabrizio Giudici

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May 7, 2012, 8:59:34 AM5/7/12
to java...@googlegroups.com, Ricky Clarkson


> On May 7, 2012 5:22 AM, "Martijn Verburg" <martijn...@gmail.com>
> wrote:

>> If you're experiencing a bug with using Netbeans and the OpenJDK then
>> please to report it to bugs DB and/or the appropriate OpenJDK mailing
>> list, the two should play nicely together.

To be precise about my previous posts, the problems with NetBeans and
OpenJDK 7 AFAIK are only for Mac OS X (the OP was talking about Mac OS X)
and they were submitted time ago. AFAIK there's not yet an official
release of OpenJDK 7 for Mac OS X, but they should be close.

--
Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager
Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere."

Bill Robertson

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May 7, 2012, 10:38:09 AM5/7/12
to The Java Posse
Hello Fabrizio,

Do you mean that the issues that I mentioned have already been
reported?

> To be precise about my previous posts, the problems with NetBeans and
> OpenJDK 7 AFAIK are only for Mac OS X (the OP was talking about Mac OS X)
> and they were submitted time ago. AFAIK there's not yet an official
> release of OpenJDK 7 for Mac OS X, but they should be close.

If they have, then great. If not, then I'd like to submit them.

Thanks,
Bill Robertson

Martijn Verburg

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May 7, 2012, 10:00:35 AM5/7/12
to java...@googlegroups.com, Ricky Clarkson
Hi all,

>>> If you're experiencing a bug with using Netbeans and the OpenJDK then
>>> please to report it to bugs DB and/or the appropriate OpenJDK mailing
>>> list, the two should play nicely together.
>
> To be precise about my previous posts, the problems with NetBeans and
> OpenJDK 7 AFAIK are only for Mac OS X (the OP was talking about Mac OS X)
> and they were submitted time ago. AFAIK there's not yet an official release
> of OpenJDK 7 for Mac OS X, but they should be close.

Nobody produces official OpenJDK builds for Mac, the closest you'll
get is Henri Gomez's builds:

http://code.google.com/p/openjdk-osx-build/

Oracle's 7u4 binary for Mac is their officially supported binary for Mac.

Cheers,
Martijn

Fabrizio Giudici

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May 7, 2012, 10:47:16 AM5/7/12
to The Java Posse, Bill Robertson
On Mon, 07 May 2012 16:38:09 +0200, Bill Robertson
<billrob...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello Fabrizio,
>
> Do you mean that the issues that I mentioned have already been
> reported?

Yes. Weeks ago I made a try with NetBeans (7.1) and the latest build of
OpenJDK 7 for Mac OS X and reported to the NBDT mailing list. Problems
were all in the specific Mac OS X integration (menu bar, preferences menu,
etc...). Talking with some of the engineers, we ended up with the fact
that they were known and filed bugs.

Stephen Barrett

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Sep 27, 2012, 3:53:17 PM9/27/12
to java...@googlegroups.com, Bill Robertson
Here's a dumb question, and I think I already know the answer but better safe than sorry...

I am sitting here with "Teach Yourself Java" on my lap and its going very well (up to page 84!) , however, it does insist on JDK7 in order to compile strings in switch statements. As I too am using OS 10.6.8, I got the same problem. If I understand this group correctly then this is where I need to be to get along without Lion: http://code.google.com/p/openjdk-osx-build/downloads/detail?name=OpenJDK-OSX-1.7-universal-jdk-b222-20111220.dmg - is that right?

As I say - very much a beginner, and I appreciate the advice. A 'yes' or 'no' will do.

Thanks
Stephen

Fabrizio Giudici

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Sep 27, 2012, 4:29:44 PM9/27/12
to java...@googlegroups.com, Stephen Barrett, Bill Robertson
On Thu, 27 Sep 2012 21:53:17 +0200, Stephen Barrett
<stephen....@gmail.com> wrote:

> Here's a dumb question, and I think I already know the answer but better
> safe than sorry...
>
> I am sitting here with "Teach Yourself Java" on my lap and its going very
> well (up to page 84!) , however, it does insist on JDK7 in order to
> compile
> strings in switch statements. As I too am using OS 10.6.8, I got the same
> problem. If I understand this group correctly then this is where I need
> to
> be to get along without
> Lion:
> http://code.google.com/p/openjdk-osx-build/downloads/detail?name=OpenJDK-OSX-1.7-universal-jdk-b222-20111220.dmg
> - is that right?
>
> As I say - very much a beginner, and I appreciate the advice. A 'yes' or
> 'no' will do.

The short answer is yes :-) but I think a further explanation is needed.
That place is the repository of the OpenJDK 7 builds for Mac OS X (I
prefer to look at the list in the home page
http://code.google.com/p/openjdk-osx-build/ and anyway honestly it's not
always easy to understand what's the latest stable release - for instance,
I'm using 7u7).

But there's also the official Oracle release at
http://jdk7.java.net/download.html

(here you can see why I'm currently a bit puzzled about what's the latest
release - I was aware of the 7u8, but it seems it has been renamed to
7u10).

For learning Java, either will do. You won't be needing any particular
update, but given that 7u7 and the previous ones have serious security
flaws, keep an eye on updates.

Sven Reimers

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Sep 27, 2012, 4:34:34 PM9/27/12
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The Oracle builds will not install on Snow Leopard... (not supported by Oracle)

So stay with the OpenJDK Builds from Henri Gomez, or go for Mountain Lion.

-Sven
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Fabrizio Giudici

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Sep 27, 2012, 4:43:08 PM9/27/12
to java...@googlegroups.com, Sven Reimers
On Thu, 27 Sep 2012 22:34:34 +0200, Sven Reimers <sven.r...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> The Oracle builds will not install on Snow Leopard... (not supported by
> Oracle)
>
> So stay with the OpenJDK Builds from Henri Gomez, or go for Mountain
> Lion.

Right, I missed that requirement from the OP.

Kirk Pepperdine

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Sep 27, 2012, 4:47:00 PM9/27/12
to java...@googlegroups.com
sorry to say but mountain lion suxs....

Russel Winder

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Sep 27, 2012, 6:20:35 PM9/27/12
to java...@googlegroups.com
On Thu, 2012-09-27 at 22:47 +0200, Kirk Pepperdine wrote:
> sorry to say but mountain lion suxs....

On what grounds?

Being a Debian user who very occasionally uses OS X, I am beginning to
believe Mountain Lion is a vast improvement on Snow Leopard (the two OS
X I have, one on a MBP one on a MB).

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