Java 1.4.1 Final... Soon

[MacRumors]

An implementation of Java 1.4 has been rumored since Feb 2002. Java 1.4.1 Developer Preview was released by Apple in October, 2002 and has subsequently been updated to DP10.

Rumors pegged the final implementation of Java 1.4.1 to be released with Mac OS X 10.2.4, but was delayed for unknown reasons.

The most recent information, coming from an SIGCSE 2003 attendant suggests that Apple will be releasing Java 1.4.1 on March 3rd, 2003, implementing improvements in garbage collection and performance.

[arn]

Full Text for those interested:

1) Java 1.4.1 will be released on March 3rd

2) Apple has reduced the number of custom classes from somewhere in the
hundreds down to about 80.

3) The new HotSpot virtual machine that is a part of this release has
improved garbage collection that works in three stages, with items that are
used more often moving into stages that are less likely to be erased from
memory. The third stage is reserved for the most used items and is unlikely
to be "collected with the other garbage" unless memory gets very low. Apple
has added a fourth stage called "immortal" that will store items that are
the most often used objects and not allow them to be destroyed. This will
help to speed up the system.

4) The Java VM will be "always on" and will actually start up with the
machine AND load some objects into the immortal area. This should speed up
the launching of Java programs substantially.
5) Apple has implemented shared jars (not sure of the name) so programs will
now be able to share resources instead of each java program launching its
own VM will the same base classes as another program that is running. This
will reduce the overhead required by Java.

Thanks to Frank.

arn

[macktheknife]

This is great news! Java 1.4 has been released for what, a year now? Unless you're using regexp and/or assertions, 1.3 will do just fine. Nonetheless, it's nice to know OS X will finally have the latest Java SDK. Let's hope Apple will keep future Java updates for OS X on or near Sun's release timeframe.

Hopefully, IntelliJ and JBuilder 8 will finally be available for OS X!

[jaykk]

JBuilder never worked for me, I hope JBuilder 8 will be available soon and will be a working version.

[beelzeben]

"4) The Java VM will be "always on" and will actually start up with the
machine AND load some objects into the immortal area. This should speed up
the launching of Java programs substantially."

Ouch, won't that hurt the people out there with low powered machines?

Personally I can't wait! Bring it on!

[Ocelot]

I am using Java 1.4.1 on a G3 imac 600mhz- 512mb of ram, I'm not sure if you consider that low powered, but I haven't experienced any slow downs

also.. if you are wondering why it was delayed try the developer release

[jefhatfield]

i am a complete newbie to java, but in our class i use 1.4.1 on my compaq laptop, saving notepad edits in the bin and compliling thru DOS...i think

how does one do the process for macs?


just curious

[ktlx]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
i am a complete newbie to java, but in our class i use 1.4.1 on my compaq laptop, saving notepad edits in the bin and compliling thru DOS...i think

how does one do the process for macs?

I really like the free development tools that come with Mac OS X. Their project builder environment can be used to edit and compile pure Java applications. It is a much nicer editor than notepad. Plus, since Mac OS X is built on UNIX, the terminal window is much better than a DOS prompt.

If you pop over to Apple's developer site, you can find more information about how to develop pure Java applications under Mac OS X.

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by ktlx
I really like the free development tools that come with Mac OS X. Their project builder environment can be used to edit and compile pure Java applications. It is a much nicer editor than notepad. Plus, since Mac OS X is built on UNIX, the terminal window is much better than a DOS prompt.

If you pop over to Apple's developer site, you can find more information about how to develop pure Java applications under Mac OS X.

thanks for the tips

[JavaCoder]

Originally posted by jaykk
JBuilder never worked for me, I hope JBuilder 8 will be available soon and will be a working version.

JBuilder is great, but NetBeans also works well on OS X -- and it's free.

[JavaCoder]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
i am a complete newbie to java, but in our class i use 1.4.1 on my compaq laptop, saving notepad edits in the bin and compliling thru DOS...i think

how does one do the process for macs?


just curious

The closest you will come to what you describe is to use TextEdit to work on your souce files (saves as Plain Text of course), and running javac from the terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal).

The command line options will be almost identical to those on Windows and exactly identical to Java under any UNIX-type OS. One notable difference is that under Windows you have been separating paths in your -classpath argument with a semicolon. On OS X you'll separate them with a colon.

[mmap]

What about Java3d? Anyone know if it's coming with 1.4.1? I'm going to need it for college...
I've heard there's a way to get the Linux version to work on OS X, anyone know how?

[wfzelle]

Originally posted by JavaCoder The closest you will come to what you describe is to use TextEdit to work on your souce files (saves as Plain Text of course), and running javac from the terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal).

I can't imagine coding without syntax highlighting. I would look into jEdit, ProjectBuilder, NetBeans or another free editor/IDE.

[lelereb]

jEdit is great!

[ryan]

Originally posted by wfzelle
I can't imagine coding without syntax highlighting. I would look into jEdit, ProjectBuilder, NetBeans or another free editor/IDE.

Take a look at Eclipse. If nothing else its ability to automatically generate setters and getters and javadoc comments is worth the price, oh wait, its free. IntelliJ is nice too but it is not free and is slightly out of date for the Mac since the newest version requires 1.4

[ryan]

Originally posted by macktheknife
This is great news! Java 1.4 has been released for what, a year now? Unless you're using regexp and/or assertions, 1.3 will do just fine. Nonetheless, it's nice to know OS X will finally have the latest Java SDK. Let's hope Apple will keep future Java updates for OS X on or near Sun's release timeframe.

Hopefully, IntelliJ and JBuilder 8 will finally be available for OS X!

Actually if you're doing Swing work 1.4 is real nice to have. Sun completely rewrote the AWT/Swing packages since they were basically junk underneath (by Sun's own admission), problem is now Swing apps written with 1.2/1.3 don't always work as expected under 1.4. But, Swing apps written in 1.4 behave much more consistently across various platforms compared to how they used to behave in 1.2/1.3.

[ryan]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
i am a complete newbie to java, but in our class i use 1.4.1 on my compaq laptop, saving notepad edits in the bin and compliling thru DOS...i think

how does one do the process for macs?


just curious

Sounds like you need to get your environment configured properly on your Compaq. If you get the classpath variable setup you can run the javac, java, jar, etc. commands from any directory.

With Java being presinstalled with OSX you can run any of the Java commands through the terminal application.

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by ryan
Sounds like you need to get your environment configured properly on your Compaq. If you get the classpath variable setup you can run the javac, java, jar, etc. commands from any directory.

With Java being presinstalled with OSX you can run any of the Java commands through the terminal application.

i don't know why i do it this way...i am new to the class (and programming) and the teacher just makes us do it this way

i am learning a lot by making tons of mistakes since the class is 3/4 labtime and very little emphasis is put on the java textbook

the teacher, though a phd, was also a pc repairman (like me) and believes in a hardcore hands on approach which is the first time i have seen it that way taught in a classroom...since 1980

in my own class i teach on the hardware side, i like to use that approach, too but i did not know that it worked so well teaching coding

it is a little hard for me since i think in such hardware terms when it comes to computing...just like the students who have the most trouble in the hardware based classes are almost always the good coders of the bunch

it must be some sort of right brained vs left brained thing, a mars and venus thing...and in almost 25 years in the college/adult learning classroom, on one side or the other, i have met very few people good at hardware and software, or equally enamored with both

it is amazing how fast some people take to coding and i got in this class because they needed an extra body or else the class would get cancelled like a lot of the CS program did since nobody wants to have anything to do with computers in northern california...we saw the effects of dot.bomb close up and have not recovered

so jumping into java, without taking the suggested DOS, C++, and visual basic...is a crazy idea for a hardware person like me

but it's fun

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by wfzelle
I can't imagine coding without syntax highlighting. I would look into jEdit, ProjectBuilder, NetBeans or another free editor/IDE.

Please cross out ProjectBuilder unless you're doing Java to Cocoa programming and insert jGrasp from the Univ. of Auburn. It's completely written in Java and shows you the capabilities of the environment. It also generates UML from the current project.

As ryan mentioned, Eclipse is a great IDE and is just one step back from IBM's commercial WebSphere Developer.

[vieuxcoq]

Originally posted by mmap
I've heard there's a way to get the Linux version to work on OS X, anyone know how?

I would be pleased to know this too.

I send the question to the ADC yesterday, not when it is planned but how to use java3d with an other platform implementation (linux) just to start working with it until apple or sun release it.

I will forward the answer if any, if you have any valuable information send it, it's so frustrating.

[mmap]

I've seen lots of discussion on the ADC java list about Java3d but unfortunately none about how to get non OS X versions to work.

Apple could at least provide a link or some further information on how to do it, just saying it can be done is not much of a help.
I'll be sure to let you know here if I do find something out.

One of the main reasons I bought a PowerBook was hearing several times that OS X was a great platform for Java development and I'll probably still have to my Java3d coding in Linux, talk about frustrating...

There seems to be a lots of disappointment from the mailing lists, lets hope Apple and Sun can provide us a native version soon.

[jefhatfield]

hey folks,

i just did my first applet today...but what it is for and how it is different i still do not know

[javaman]

mmap, or anyone else, does anyone have links to the apple discussion on the topic? Does the 1.4.1 demo contain a Java3D toolkit? Much like you, I really need that toolkit, and it makes my machine a bit less useful.

[mmap]

You can find the Java development ADC mailing list at http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/java-dev.
There was a lot of Java3d discussion last month (February), but, as I said before, none of it relating to how to use a non native version.
I still haven't done an exhaustive search because I don't need it right now. I did search quite a bit and wasn't able to find any information on how to do it.
I might try to just grab the classes from Linux and putting them somewhere to see if it works.
And... do let Apple know you need Java3d!