Re: The mac for Java programmers

On Aug 20, 8:34 am, Roedy Green <see_webs...@mindprod.com.invalid>
wrote:


Thoughts, as of 23:30 EDT, Aug 20:

 - Out of the first paragraph, the only sentence I'd recommend keeping
is the one listing the CPU architectures; given that Java hides most
of the differences, it could be relegated to a footnote. The rest are
excellent personal observations but don't really fit in a Java-
oriented technical glossary.

 - OS X will run on PPC and Intel Macs; Java 1.4 and 1.5 are available
for all OS X Macs and 1.6 for 64-bit (Core 2 Duo) Intel Macs. It's
probably not worth mentioning the Mac OS 9 and earlier Java support;
Apple's long since EOLed it and I haven't run into any systems still
running OS 9 or earlier in a long time now. Even "Classic" support --
for running apps built on older OS versions -- has been discontinued
since 10.4. It's Dead, Jim.

 - As of OS X, the accepted line terminator is LF (\n). CRs and CRLFs
still show up in *old* third-party apps, but anything made this
millennium will probably get it right. Java apps running on OS X
default to LF for their line separator.

 - Environment variables ("set environment") are available: their use
is discouraged for native apps, but they're there. They can be set
for terminal sessions using the usual shell startup scripts
(.bash_profile, .profile) or globally at login using a property list
(~/.MacOSX/environment.plist) which can be created using the property
list editor that comes with the system.

 - The default environment for apps run from Finder or LaunchServices
includes the variables HOME, SHELL, PATH, TMPDIR, USER, and LOGNAME,
along with a few that appear to be specific to Apple's JAR launcher.
Apps launched from a shell inherit the shell's environment, as usual.

 - Apps launched via Finder or LaunchServices will have standard
output and standard error written to /var/log/system.log, viewable in
the Console application. Apps launched from a shell have standard
input, output, and error connected to the shell, as usual.

 - My original wording in the section on the BSD command line tools is
kind of confusing. Since I'm a wordy fuck, I don't have a good
suggestion for that. :)

 - The version of Java used to run apps can be changed from the Java
Preferences, which is in /Applications/Utilities/Java. The section
for "Java Application Runtime Settings" applies to Java applications,
JNLP (Webstart) apps, and applets launched via Webstart. It also
changes the default compiler version and JRE libraries used at
compilation.

 - The Apple JDK and Java Runtime includes libraries for interfacing
with some of the OS, including Quicktime (http://developer.apple.com/
quicktime/qtjava/) and parts of the NSApplication framework (http://
developer.apple.com/documentation/Java/Reference/1.5.0/appledoc/
api/). The Application class in combination with OS X-specific
packaging (Bundles, with an Info.plist file, documented in the FAQ)
can make Java apps act very much like native apps. Apple also
maintains a FAQ for Java on the Mac platform at http://developer.apple.com/=
java/faq/
which includes items on using the NSApplication pieces portably.

If you want to run some code on a Mac and capture the output, let me
know. I'm happy to make one of mine available to you, or to compile
and run code. Please do not send me compiled code, obviously... :)

Cheers,
-o