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Java development on Macintosh -- is it viable or not?

Find out whether a Java developer using a Mac can be competitive, given the history of lags in delivery of tools for the MacOS

By Daniel H. Steinberg, JavaWorld.com, 07/01/97

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While teaching a Java course this past semester, I enjoyed Java's platform independence, which let me easily work at home on my Macintosh using Sun's JDK and Metrowerks' CodeWarrior 11 while teaching in a Windows 95 environment using Sun's JDK and Microsoft's Visual J++. My students at John Carroll University (University Heights, OH) and I happily e-mailed code back and forth, compiled it, and ran it. There were very few problems.

With the Windows release of JDK 1.1, however, this multiplatform scenario would no longer be possible. Some students wanted to move to JDK 1.1, which was available in beta for Windows in December, 1996. But the semester came and went without a beta (nevermind a final release) of JDK 1.1 for the Mac (although JavaSoft did manage during this time to release a Japanese language version of 1.1 for Windows and Solaris). What convinced our students not to move to 1.1 was the lack of browser support for 1.1.

The question arose (and I posted it to several newsgroups): Can a Java developer work on a Macintosh and be competitive? This article explores the answers to this question as well as the issue of the considerable delay in release of tools for the MacOS. The wild card that is not considered: the implication of Microsoft's RNI technology, which maximizes run-time speed in a Windows environment.

The lag in release of JDK 1.1 for MacOS

Sun's Eric Chu, product manager for the Java Developer Kit, explains that "JavaSoft's goal is to provide implementation for Windows, Mac, and Solaris," but "each implementation of the Java Platform and JDK is tied to the targeted operating systems." Since "JavaSoft is still a relatively small organization," engineers "had to do one implementation at a time."

How big is this lag? The Windows beta of JDK 1.1 was released on December 3, 1996. Less than two weeks later, a second beta was released to fix bugs, among other places, in security (see JavaWorld's January issue). The final release of JDK 1.1 for Windows shipped in February, 1997. As for the Macintosh version, Chu says "the Beta release of the JDK for the Mac ... will be announced over the next few weeks" and "the final release of the JDK 1.1 for the Mac will [ship] early this fall." Because Chu says the Apple betas are very high quality, he views this as less than a four-month lag.

Actually, the difference between beta releases is 7 months, and Chu's own prediction for general maintenance (GM) releases has a difference of 7-9 months. Will Iverson, Java & components product manager at Apple, adds that "previously, JavaSoft released revisions to Apple in the following [sequence]: JDK alpha, JDK beta, JDK GM, Apple alpha, Apple beta, Apple GM." As you can see, even the alpha version for the Mac wasn't released until after the JDK GM release. The good news is that many of the Java-specific problems had been fixed before the Mac version was released.

"Mac Java developers are not at a disadvantage," says Gordy Davies of Metrowerks' media relations department. "[We] will include 1.1 capability (compiler and VM) for the Mac in the pre-release folder of [the latest] CodeWarrior Professional. [Also], Apple stated publicly at the recent World Wide Developers Conference that it intends to ship JDK version 1.2 and to release new versions in the same time frame as their Solaris/Windows counterparts."

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