On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 4:51 PM, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
> > On Jan 22, 4:14 pm, Michael Kimsal <[email protected]> wrote: > > The cynical part of me (and others I've talked to) seems to indicate that > > Java is a threat to the Objective-C approach Apple wants everyone to > take. > > The more people can write portable stuff on a Mac, the less tied to a Mac > > they'll be. To the extent this is true, I don't see one whit of > attitudinal > > difference between Apple's approach to Java and Microsoft's all those > years > > ago. > > > > I do. Microsoft effectively wanted to 'fork' the Java language, > adding their own proprietary and hence incompatible extensions into it > so that native Win32/COM calls could be made more easily without > requiring individual JNI interfaces to be created. > > I don't see Apple trying to incompatibly fork the language. > I have Java programs that don't work under Apple OSX, but the same program works under Windows and Linux. The original author needs to look in to what's different about Java on OSX and make adjustments. So the net effect is I have something incompatible from mainline Java. > > Why Sun has ceded the writing of Java for the Mac platform *to* Apple is > > still a mystery to me, and probably always will be. Since Sun has > > historically given Java short shrift on Linux, *new* Java releases still > > have tended to be a single platform affair. > > > > Is that really true? Doesn't JDK1.6_10 run on Linux already? I think > you might be a bit out of date, or perhaps I'm not aware of the > deficiencies in the most current JDK releases on Linux? > JDK1.6_10 was one of the first ones I can remember that was released on Linux at the same time as on Windows. So, historically, it's always been a little behind. When Sun keep this up for a few years, then I'll trust it's going to be given the same support. Still very odd desktop graphics issues with running Java apps on modern Linux desktops. > > As to why Sun ceded JDK ports to Apple, I'm guessing the reason is > simply one of resources. The Java platform has always had interfaces > to the lower level graphics bits of Windows and UNIX since its > inception, so adding new features and evolving the language wouldn't > seem to be a major effort for Linux. > > However, an OSX port is a different story, mostly because as you said > above the Cocoa/ObjectiveC/Aqua based environment is a fairly radical > paradigm shift from either Linux/X11 or Win32/GDI. > > -Chris > This just illustrates that Sun hasn't historically been all that concerned about Java. If this is their flagship technology, the one on which the entire future of the company rests (they changed their ticker symbol to JAVA for goodness' sake!) they should exercise more control over the experience of that technology both for developers and for end users. If the cutting edge stuff can't run on a significant portion of machines that typically run cutting edge stuff (early adopters) they'll continue to lose market- and mindshare. -- Michael Kimsal http://michaelkimsal.com 919.827.4724 - Skype 919.455.8488 - Cell --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
