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WalnutSpice

Suspended
Original poster
Jun 21, 2015
456
92
Canton, Oh
I was thinking about how the fake 16.x Adobe Flash version number on PowerPC Macs does help to enable some features, and was curious if this can be done to Java 1.5 as well? I've tried looking everywhere for the Java 1.6 beta release that worked on PowerPC that probably doesn't even exist, so maybe if we can modify the version on the existing Java 1.5, maybe we can get some Java 1.6 features?
 
I was thinking about how the fake 16.x Adobe Flash version number on PowerPC Macs does help to enable some features, and was curious if this can be done to Java 1.5 as well? I've tried looking everywhere for the Java 1.6 beta release that worked on PowerPC that probably doesn't even exist, so maybe if we can modify the version on the existing Java 1.5, maybe we can get some Java 1.6 features?

I have spent hours of my life trying to compile Open JDK7 and Beta 1.6 on PowerPC to no avail. I feel that if the right people spent a little time on it, it could be done without much difficulty. The source is there, we just need a xo-ordinated effort. That has so far never occurred.
 
I have spent hours of my life trying to compile Open JDK7 and Beta 1.6 on PowerPC to no avail. I feel that if the right people spent a little time on it, it could be done without much difficulty. The source is there, we just need a xo-ordinated effort. That has so far never occurred.
I've spent a good amount of time trying that myself. I agree, it could happen.
 
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There are rumors of a VERY OLD Mac Runtime for Java 1.6 floating around. At best they are rumors.
 
There was, (and probably still is) a version of Java 1.6 for PowerPC Macs. It was originally a developer preview installation for PPC Tiger but, it did a few dodgey things or, something, maybe security-flaw related. Apple dropped support for the PPC version of it and only continued with the Intel version hence why from then on, Tiger stayed on Java 1.4, and PowerPC Leopard stayed on 1.5 while Intel Leopard and Snow Leopard got 1.6.

You could still install the 1.6 developer preview on Leopard by doing some faffling around (normally running the installer just tells you it's only for Tiger), no idea how well it worked though. If you can find it, the file name was javase6release1dp6.dmg but the only links I've come across for it in recent times were all dead. It's probably also no longer available on the Apple Developer Connection where it originated from.

Edit: Interestingly after a quick Google I found a working download link for it. http://livetube.cc/testing/osx/ it's on that page direct link: http://livetube.cc/testing/osx/javase6release1dp6.dmg - I downloaded it on my PC and ran a virus scan on it and it didn't find anything wrong with it but then again that is on Windows, if it is dodgy it might be Mac specific. Would suggest you download and try it with extreme caution if you even want to.

Edit edit:

There's a post on this stackoverflow thread explaining how to install it on 10.5.
 
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Downloaded OpenJDK 7 (http://landonf.bikemonkey.org/stati..._darwin/openjdk7-macppc-2009-12-16-b4.tar.bz2) last night. Decompressed it then added the path to the OpenJDK 7 bin directory at the front of the PATH variable.

Checking the version from a command line (java -version) returns 1.7. Checking the browsers (http://www.egtry.com/javascript/info/version) - Safari (w/webkit) reports "javascript version=1.7" while TenFoxFour reports "javascript version=1.5".

At some point I'll change the links in "/usr/bin/", "/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/" and "/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/" (from 1.5) to OpenJDK. That should fix TenFoxFour.

In case the link for OpenJDK 7 stops working, I've placed the file on DropBox.
 
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Turns out that "CommandLine is currently the only capability OpenJDK supports" (http$://wiki.openjdk.java.net/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=12451856).

After changing the install directory name and removing it from PATH, Safari (w/webkit) still reports "javascript version=1.7".

Sorry for the false alarm :oops:
 
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