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Java on OS X, slowly fading away
Most of the great and compelling desktop applications for the Mac are written in Objective-C, a somewhat strange language but still very similar to C and C++. Objective-C was branched from the GCC GNU compiler and therefore is free and open software, with the code of the GCC Apple branch made available here: http://gcc.gnu.org/viewcvs/branches/apple/trunk/gcc/ Most of the code in this branch is between 8 and 13 months old, which may only suggest that the repository does not get update very often, still Objective-C gets a major overhaul for the first time in a very long time. The Objective-C language is being changed and not in a small way, like David shows in his recent article at informit.com:
  • Objective-C is now be able to create managed code, meaning like C# and Java, Objective-C object falling out of scope will be garbage collected by a Runtime Engine and not being released by developer written code. Objective-C adds __strong and __weak type qualifiers for pointers, notifying the runtime garbage collector of how to deal with it.
  • Like David also mentions, the dot notation to access properties (just like one would do in C++) has been added too.
  • And there is another example of Objective-C borrowing a feature from a different programming language: automatic generation of property accessors.
    A property just needs to be annotated in the Interface (yes, Objective-C like C and C++, separates definition and implementation) like
    @property int aProperty;
    as readable or read-write, and accessor methods (setters and /or getters) will be generated automatically using this implementation:
    @property (ivar = anInstanceVariable, copies, setter = aSetMethod:) int aProperty;

Java on OS X

That is all good but what is happening to Java on OS X in the meantime? Like stated in this technical note here http://developer.apple.com/qa/qa2001/qa1342.html, the Cocoa-Java API is deprecated as of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and it seems Java has fallen out of favor a bit in Cupertino.
The most current Java Runtime Versions for Mac OS X are: Current Java Release from Sun for Windows on the other hand are: Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs was recently quoted in David Pogue's New York Times blog: "Java's not worth building in. Nobody uses Java anymore. It's this big heavyweight ball and chain."

Well, like aforementioned, most great and compelling desktop applications for the Mac are written in Objective-C and maybe there really isn't any incentive for Apple anymore, to keep Java up to date on the Mac, at least not with the responsiveness we have grown used to.

Java on OS X

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Published on: Monday, January 22nd, 2007  •  Category: [java]
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