Java 1.6 on OS X

[Jeremy Ross]

What are Java developers doing for Java 1.6 on Macs? Java 1.6 has
been here for a couple of years now. Sun already announced EOL for
1.5.

As a Mac user, it seems that I have the following options for Java
development:

a- Get a PC
b- Run another OS in a VM
c- Use Apple's JDK 1.6 beta
d- Use SoyLatte (the OS X port of the BSD port)
e- Stick to 1.5

So far I've done e. The idea of a non-Apple JDK is very appealing to
me, so I did some searching around on SoyLatte. There doesn't seem to
be much activity other than a few isolated blog and mailing list
posts. I can't quite figure out if it's alive, and if it will be part
of OpenJDK, and what that means if it does. I haven't tried Apple's
1.6 JDK beta yet either.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has used either of these 1.6
implementations and what their thoughts are in general on the state of
Java 1.6 on OS X.

Jeremy

[Viktor Klang]

I chose between JDK 6 Beta and SoyLatte, and decided to go the JDK 6 beta route.

It's been working out just fine for me.

Cheers,
-Viktor

--
Viktor Klang
Rogue Software Architect

[David Linsin]

Hey Viktor,

have you noticed any major bugs? I'm thinking of switching from JDK
1.5 too, but sometimes you don't know how "beta" a beta release really
is.

with kind regards,

David Linsin
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
email: dli...@gmail.com
blog: http://dlinsin.blogspot.com

[Viktor Klang]

Greetings David,

the newest beta release is very stable imho, I havn't noticed _any_ bugs yet,
and I'm currently working on a really huge codebase.

Cheers,
-V

[Christian Catchpole]

I'v been using SoyLatte and have had no problems. You do have to
remember that AWT / Swing is implemented in a simple way via X11 - and
its certainly not accelerated. But for most of us I assume we are
writing sever apps on our macs which end up on a windows or unix
production server.

[Reinier Zwitserloot]

There's probably not much traffic around soy latte right now because
there's nobody involved (AFAIK) with serious Apple carbon knowledge to
port the swing stuff over. Other than that, soylatte is basically
'done' - its been 100% stable for me (compared to the old tiger 1.6
beta that is no longer available, and even the official apple java5).
What more do you want?

If you aren't going to need it for the GUI, I strongly suggest soy
latte.

I currently run eclipse on top of apple java5, using the soy latte VM
as a default (eventhough it's a classic VM, due to a bug in eclipse
you need to say it's a mac VM and point to soy latte's jre directory.
Works just fine though).



On Apr 29, 12:01 pm, Christian Catchpole <christ...@catchpole.net>
wrote:

[Ricardo]

Java 6 on Mac OS X is now out of Beta

This release does not change the default version of Java. This release
is only for Mac OS X v10.5.2 and later, and should not be installed on
earlier versions of Mac OS X. This release is for 64-bit Intel-based
Macs only and cannot run on PowerPC-based or 32-bit Intel-based Macs.

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/javaformacosx105update1.html

> > production server.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Mark Derricutt]

hazah! let the rejoicing begin.

On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 11:06 AM, Ricardo <richar...@gmail.com> wrote:

Java 6 on Mac OS X is now out of Beta

This release does not change the default version of Java. This release
is only for Mac OS X v10.5.2 and later, and should not be installed on
earlier versions of Mac OS X. This release is for 64-bit Intel-based
Macs only and cannot run on PowerPC-based or 32-bit Intel-based Macs.

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/javaformacosx105update1.html

--
"It is easier to optimize correct code than to correct optimized code." -- Bill Harlan

[Jeremy Ross]

I should have asked about this sooner.

[Eric Angel]

Well, it's out now..  Let's take time to enjoy it since it won't be until another 10 years that Apple releases Java 7.

[carl]

I've grabbed this update and have been playing around with it a bit
now on my MacPro. So far it looks great.

Java 6 is not set as default when you install it, but you can change
that in the Java utility console.

Netbeans ignores this default and uses Java 5. Maybe I haven't
switched everything over. Hm... But passing the correct --jdkhome to
Netbeans gets it on the new Java and things work great.

Eclipse also ignores the default, and then bombs when it's told to use
Java 6 with -vm. It is completely happy, though, building and running
and debugging Java 6 apps. I guess that's good enough if you're not
writing Eclipse RCP apps.

On Apr 29, 4:34 pm, "Eric Angel" <eric.angel...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Well, it's out now..  Let's take time to enjoy it since it won't be until
> another 10 years that Apple releases Java 7.
>

> On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 4:18 PM, Jeremy Ross <jeremy.g.r...@gmail.com>

[zorro2b]

Eclipse can't run on the new JDK. SWT which underpins Eclipse is
written using the Carbon. Until SWT is ported to Cocoa Eclipse will
have to run under JDK 1.5.

It seems there was some work on the Cocoa port done last year, but I
can't find any signs of life this year:
http://inside-swt.blogspot.com/2007/11/ok-community-blow-your-brains-out.html

[Reinier Zwitserloot]

Yes, as was said in the other thread, carbon only works in 32-bit
mode, and the java6 release is 64-bit only. That's why it won't work.
You can't run eclipse in 64-bit mode (because the carbon jnilibs won't
let you), but then you can't use java6.

On Apr 30, 10:43 am, zorro2b <andrew.za...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Eclipse can't run on the new JDK. SWT which underpins Eclipse is
> written using the Carbon. Until SWT is ported to Cocoa Eclipse will
> have to run under JDK 1.5.
>
> It seems there was some work on the Cocoa port done last year, but I

> can't find any signs of life this year:http://inside-swt.blogspot.com/2007/11/ok-community-blow-your-brains-...

[Tor Norbye]

On Apr 29, 7:27 pm, carl <carl.qu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Java 6 is not set as default when you install it, but you can change
> that in the Java utility console.
>
> Netbeans ignores this default and uses Java 5. Maybe I haven't
> switched everything over. Hm... But passing the correct --jdkhome to
> Netbeans gets it on the new Java and things work great.

The Java Preferences panel despite the name isn't a system wide
default Java settings control; all it controls is which JVM is used
for applets (that's the first setting), and which JVM is used for Web
Start/JNLP (that's the second setting). There's wording to this effect
in the panel as well.

Applications typically don't look at that - NetBeans is not a web
start application, it's a normal .app install. To REALLY change the
default JVM used on your system, modify the symlink named "Current" in
/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions

(Alternatively, a less intrusive approach which will work for NetBeans
is to set JAVA_HOME in your environment:
JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/
Home
export JAVA_HOME

That will work for NetBeans since it has startup scripts which
consider this envvar - other applications may not.

-- Tor

[David Linsin]

when you are changing the "Java Application Runtime Settings" in the
Java Preferences you can change the system wide settings.
Just drag the Java SE 6 to the top and it'll use it system wide.

with kind regards,

David Linsin
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
email: dli...@gmail.com
blog: http://dlinsin.blogspot.com

[Brice]

Yeah, I guess this is the problem. The 1.5 JVM that shipped with
Leopard was 32-bit & 64-bit capable, so it can run Eclipse in its
(default) 32-bit mode. The 1.6 JVM, however, is *only* 64-bit capable
(running with -d32, to try to force it into 32-bit mode produces an
error). I guess this is the complaint people are leveraging.

I'll add to this that it *seems* that Apple has done away with a
separate "client" and "server" VM (invoked using the -client and -
server options, usually defaulting to -client) - I can only get Java
1.6 to provide the "server" VM. Not sure what additional implications
there are with this (threading differences?).

All-in-all, I hope that Apple is continuing to work on bringing full
compatibility to Java 6 in OS X. 32-bit mode should be an option for
backwards compatibility, and if there's anything significant between "-
client" and "-server" - then that should be provided as well. I'll
also vote +1 for making Java 6 available on non 64-bit platforms, when
the 32-bit mode is brought back.

[Alexey Zinger]

My understanding is that client and server modes were prepackaged configurations of hotspot and garbage collection.  It may be that some of that tunability has been taken away or additional automation has been added to make the VM smarter. Alexey 2001 Honda CBR600F4i (CCS) 1992 Kawasaki EX500 http://azinger.blogspot.com http://bsheet.sourceforge.net http://wcollage.sourceforge.net --- On Wed, 4/30/08, Brice <bdr...@gmail.com> wrote:

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