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Macworld: Will Mac OS X be your next development platform?

Strong Java support from Apple continues with Mac OS X

By Daniel H. Steinberg, JavaWorld.com, 07/27/01

Page 2 of 4

Furthermore, Apple now includes a developer's CD in every Mac OS X copy. With that move, every Mac hobbyist who wants to create an application has the tool support. Indeed, developers can use Apple's Project Builder IDE for developing Java applications, although, as a multi-language IDE, it does not provide the best support for Java. The tools bundle includes the MRJAppBuilder to convert your Java applications into double-clickable Mac applications. As such, you can take Java class files from another platform, port them to the Mac, then wrap them with MRJAppBuilder to produce applications that look as if they were developed on and for Mac OS X. Apple does, however, suggest that for Mac OS X-targeted applications, you take some time to make the experience more Mac-like. For example, the wording and order of menus is different in native Windows and Mac applications. You should display the menus appropriate to the OS that the Java application will run on.

Java on Mac OS X special features

Apple has taken one of its greatest perceived negatives and turned it into a positive over the last few years. The company has long been criticized for not knowing whether it was a hardware or a software vendor. Today, however, Apple's strategy strives to exploit this end-to-end control. You can see this strategy in action with hardware-accelerated Swing. Apple engineers can exploit their knowledge of the video cards the platform supports. In a demo at the WWDC and repeated at JavaOne, Apple showed a G4 Mac rotating an image while a Pentium IV with four times the clock speed attempted the same task. The G4 effortlessly flipped the image over and over while the Pentium IV struggled to rerender the image and jerk it forward little by little.

IDEs benefit from hardware acceleration

Hardware acceleration represents good news for developers who want to make the Mac their development platform. Many IDEs are large Swing applications that look and feel better with this improved responsiveness.

Currently, hardware acceleration is an available option in the developer's preview available from Apple's Apple Developer Connection (ADC). The ADC has made the developer's preview available to both its paying and free members, but you'll have to join first. For now, you'll find hardware acceleration turned off by default, but the Readme includes directions for setting the flag before running your Java application.

Indeed, Borland's JBuilder 5 beta advises you to run this developer release of Java and turn hardware acceleration on to take advantage of its IDE. Borland will finalize JBuilder 5 on the Mac once developers have access to the final version of Java 1.3.1. The JBuilder 5 demo also showcases how well a large, full-featured Java application can run.

Seamless to the user

Moneydance personal finance software serves as an example of a consumer application written in Java on Mac OS X. The application installs easily and runs like any other Mac OS X application. Consumers need not know the application was developed in Java. Sean Riley, CTO of Appgen Personal Software, began developing Moneydance on Linux. After looking to deploy on Mac OS X, he was drawn to the platform and now does all of his Java development on Mac OS X.

 

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