Apple Releases Java 1.4.1 Developer Preview

kuwan writes "Allen Denison, Java Product Manager at Apple has just sent an email to their java-dev mailing list announcing the availability of a Java 1.4.1 Developer Preview. This preview is available to all ADC members and can be downloaded from the 'Download Software' section of the ADC web site. The preview is under a non-disclosure agreement so you won't be able to talk about it except on a private Apple mailing list. It's good to see that Apple is making progress on Java 1.4 and Mac OS X users will soon have the latest Java VM."

Comments

1.4 has scrollwheel support!

[Nipsy356]

Whooohoooo.... Finally, I can wield the mighty power of the scroll wheel, using it to comabt evil, and cause carpal tunnel the world over! Now if only Acrobat Reader admitted the existence of the all mighty scroll wheel...

Not quite the latest

[gaj]

I'm not an ADC member, so perhaps the article was just wrong, but Sun has 1.4.1_01 (first patch release to 1.4.1) out and available for Linux, Solaris and Windows.

1.4.1 had some major breakage (e.g. drag-n-drop was f'ed up pretty good). I just dloaded 1.4.1_01, and haven't yet read the release notes, but if they fixed the things that were obviously borken in 1.4.1, it'll be a damn fine upgrade for those Mac folk stuck back on 1.3.1. Lots of bugs fixed, lots of improvements.

Though I don't use Macs, here's hoping that Apple has a clue and either releases 1.4.1_01 or at least merges the most importent bug fixes back into their 1.4.1 tree (assuming their contract with Sun allows for that).

Re:Not quite the latest

[whee]

As with any preview release, there are lots of bugs. Some related to 1.4.1, some related to this specific implementation. Apple spends a lot of time with their Java implementation, so anything fixed in Sun's 1.4.1_01 will be fixed by the time this is released.

Re:Not quite the latest

[Wesley Felter]

No, Apple's VM is a port of Sun's HotSpot.

Re:Strange

[Lars T.]

Bringing out a product fast is anything but a guaranty to have a fast product.

Re:Strange

[MoneyT]

But which is better then, releasing a product fast to the market and patching all the bugs later, or takng the time to catch as many of the bugs as you can and then releasing it?

The deal with J2SE version numbers

[melquiades]

The version "1.4.1" refers to a version of the Java specification. I believe that the "_01" only refers to a patch level of Sun's implementation.

Others in this discussion are correct that Apple's JVM is at least partially based on Sun's, and Apple has in the past opted to keep their patch numbers (the bit past the underscore) correlated with Sun's, suffixing Apple-specific patch numbers to the Sun patch numbers.

However, what goes after the underscore is to some extent up to Apple -- all that matters is that they're keeping up with patches to Hotspot. So don't get too bent out of shape over the missing "_01", because you're not usually going to see it in their annoucements anyway.

Now if Apple is actually fails to keep integrating patches ... that's certainly something to get bent out of shape about.

Scrolling and J2ME, among other things...

[Offwhite98]

I want more things added beyond the basics like support for the scroller on my mouse. I started to learn about the Thinlet framework for a lightweight GUI. It is meant to be used with midp applications, but like most stuff on java.sun.com, it is directed at Windows, Linux and Solaris. I would think by now they would provide a MacOS X download just like most Java application vendors now do.

I have installed the Linux version which is just a shell script which expands data to a directory that you specify, but it just does not work right. I would like a standard MacOS X installer which would set things up properly. If I had that, I would be on my way to developing midp applications. Instead I am going to have to wait till Sun or Apple puts something together.

Apple still does not seem to fully embrace Java anyway. If they did, they would be lobbying Sun or IBM to more quickly roll out these Java frameworks out for MacOS X so that we would not have to run a Windows box to run current Java technologies.

And while I am at it, why does Sun complain that Microsoft is a monopoly while making Java technologies so easily available for Windows and not MacOS X? Sure there is a matter of market share, but the monopoly will not change if Sun is not willing to take actual steps to make the change. Sure it supports Linux, but I still do not see the general public migrating to Linux. I see that happening more and more with MacOS X.

Swing applications run decently on OS X, so Sun should rush to make it the flagship platform.