Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Java 1.4.1 Update 1 for Mac OS X

Posted by pudge on from the update-yer-software dept.

hrbrmstr writes "Regular updaters will already know, but Apple issued an update to Java today. It adds the following enhancements: improved Java applet support for Safari and other web browsers that support the Java Internet Plug-In; improved drawing correctness and performance; changes to Java 1.3.1 that provide support for Oracle11i client applications on Mac OS X; improved stability, memory usage, and correctness."

69 comments

  1. Yeah but ... by grunherz · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, but does it fix Limewire ...

    That was joke by the way ...

    --
    Four weeks, Twenty papers, that's two dollars ... plus tip.
    1. Re:Yeah but ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      not offtopic. Limewire is coded in Java...

    2. Re:Yeah but ... by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I know it was a joke, but FYI, work is being done to make Limewire work with JDK 1.4.x. Because of the major difeferences between the MRJ and the JDK, there has been a lot of changes, to the OS X specific code.

      I am not sure if the latest release version supports JDK 1.4.x, but last time I looked ( a few months ago) there was still a separate branch in cvs for the new changes. For more info, see the Limewire development site.

      --
      Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    3. Re:Yeah but ... by reiggin · · Score: 1

      What gets me is why are people still using LimeWire? Acquisition is based on LimeWire but is excedingly better, works with Java 1.4.1, fast launching, and in constant development. LimeWire is history as far as I'm concerned. The guy that develops Acquisition actually knows how to make use of Java.

    4. Re:Yeah but ... by EelBait · · Score: 2, Informative

      I believe that's because he's using Cocoa for the GUI part, and java for the network part (in a sub-process, even). The java GUI tools bite and look equally bad on all platforms.

    5. Re:Yeah but ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On the other hand gtk-gnutella is free, and can do everything that Limewire or Acquisition can do. Just don't look directly at the gtk-gnutella window because it's horrific appearance might just drive you insane. I wish someone would've warned me...

    6. Re:Yeah but ... by grunherz · · Score: 1

      I actually ditched Limewire for Acquisition a while ago and just recently I ditched Acquisition for Poisoned which does gnutella, kazaa and GifT ... it's a bitch getting downloads to complete though.

      After all that, Limewire still always seems to find and download the most stuff ... but with the most hideous user experience.

      Oh well ...

      (you guys who modded my original comment as off topic have more mod points than brain cells.)

      --
      Four weeks, Twenty papers, that's two dollars ... plus tip.
  2. Java + OSX == happy by psyconaut · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Apple had an appauling track record with Java until fairly recently, but OSX is a seriously nice platform for Java development now....at least for me :-)

    -psy

    1. Re:Java + OSX == happy by andrewski · · Score: 0, Troll

      It's fairly obvious that Sun has made an effort to assure that Solaris + Java == happy, and (anything else) + Java == not as happy.

    2. Re:Java + OSX == happy by psyconaut · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Huh? I just said that OSX + Java is very nice now! It's almost Java nirvana! ;-)

      -psy

    3. Re:Java + OSX == happy by kwerle · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's fairly obvious that Sun has made an effort to assure that Solaris + Java == happy

      And here I thought that SUN's whole purpose was to make sure that Solaris + anything = miserable. That was always my experience - but I've not touched Solaris for 4 or 5 years...

    4. Re:Java + OSX == happy by inertia187 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Apple had an appauling track record with Java until fairly recently...

      It's still pretty bad, according to Borland. Yes, the deltas are quick, but the adherence to the actual Java Language Specification is still pretty appalling.

      Apple still has the balls to show JBuilder on the main page all this time, even though they broke JB7 when 1.4.1 first came out. Because of these adherence problems and the native loader breakage (even though Apple supplied a workaround for them), Borland hasn't felt that OS X has been "prime time" so JBuilder versions 8, 9, and likely 10 will be without an OS X version - even though there are Linux and Solaris versions. I'm talking about official support, you can still force JBuilder 8, 9, and 10 to run on OS X, but Borland doesn't officially recognize it.

      Thankfully, JBuilder 7 has been fixed in this Java Update from Apple. Hopefully, this will bring OS X back into the Borland fold.

      Yes, Java + OS X makes me happy too. I personally have not had the issues Borland points out with the MRJ. I think Borland is crying sour grapes because of political pressure from Microsoft's .NET platform. So I said screw it and went NetBeans for a while.

      I've been pretty happy with NetBeans, and have had great success at mixing platforms. I can work on the same CVS tree using JBuilder on OS X and Windows, as well as NetBeans on OS X and Windows. Just takes an Ant script to allow NetBeans to use the same project tree as JBuilder.

      Check out my personal web site, coded entirely in NetBeans on Mac OS X. Umkay?

      --
      A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
    5. Re:Java + OSX == happy by commodoresloat · · Score: 3, Funny
      It's almost Java nirvana! ;-)

      Javana?

    6. Re:Java + OSX == happy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Smells Like Bean Spirit?

  3. Re:correctness? by clem.dickey · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Correct" is like "optimized." The unwashed masses think it is an absolute, but we CS elite know otherwise.

  4. Robocode? by Hanji · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Does anyone know if robocode works right with this new version? It's the one program I've found that seems to run *much* better on windows Java distros than on OS X (it's basically unusable). I'd really like to see that working, because it's a great game, and a fun way to learn Java.

    --
    A Minesweeper clone that doesn't suck
    1. Re:Robocode? by TheAJofOZ · · Score: 4, Informative

      It runs just fine.

      For the record, a great deal of performance problems (but not all) are caused by poor code in the program - particularly to do with selecting graphics types. Check the java-dev list archives for details. Having said that, drawLine() in previous versions of 1.4.1 on OS X gets slower each time you call it and that seems to be fixed in this version which will make a significant difference.

    2. Re:Robocode? by BortQ · · Score: 4, Informative

      For what it's worth, robocode was used to demonstrate java improvements/speedups in multiple presentations at this years WWDC.

      --

      A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
    3. Re:Robocode? by shamino0 · · Score: 1
      Does anyone know if robocode works right with this new version?

      I don't know about robocode (never played it), but I have found that another Java game (Word Whomp) has incredible difference in performance between browsers. On Mozilla, it is unplayable. On Safari, it is nearly perfect. As far as I can tell, both use the same Apple-provided Java plugin.

      If you haven't already done so, try several different browsers with your game and see if any perform better than others.

  5. Do these updates let Hushmail work on OSX yet? by ratkins · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I think Hushmail is using some wierdo sun.* encryption library that hasn't so far been included with Apple's Java libraries. Have they fixed this? It sucks having to check my Hushmail account at work...

    1. Re:Do these updates let Hushmail work on OSX yet? by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 1, Insightful

      It sounds like Hushmail should write clean Java code.

    2. Re:Do these updates let Hushmail work on OSX yet? by 2starr · · Score: 1

      They should use Bouncy Castle instead. I'm pretty sure it has all the cryptographic tools they could need. Good stuff and pure java.

      --

      "Let your heart soar as high as it will. Refuse to be average." - A. W. Tozer

  6. 1.4.1? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I thought Java was up to 1.4.2. Is there a reason to be one revision behind?

    1. Re:1.4.1? by The+Herbaliser · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because they're not Sun.

  7. Makes Batik work better by David+Eppstein · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've been using Batik to view and convert SVG image files, and had some problems with incorrect rendering (e.g. dashed strokes getting inconsistent dash lengths). Seems to be all fixed with this new version.

  8. Dammit by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I have 498.2 MB free on my PowerBook G3, and it says I must have 498 MB free to install this package, which seems strange for a 39.7MB package. Something is borked. Time to restart.

    --
    That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
    1. Re:Dammit by zpok · · Score: 3, Informative

      Have had the same problem with my powerbook. What you do is
      1) download the installer package to your desktop (you can choose that option in the menu)
      2) install it when download is complete, either through software installer or by doubleclicking the package.
      I'm sure Bob's not actually your uncle, but that's all there is to it.

      --
      I think, therefore I am...I think.
    2. Re:Dammit by MoneyT · · Score: 1

      Install it anyway. I've run into that a couple of times in the installer programs, they don't properly estimate the nessesary size for the install.

      --
      T Money
      World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
  9. JFC by frooyo · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I wonder if the JFC components for GTK and Windows XP (Luna) are included :)

    1. Re:JFC by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 2, Informative

      AFAIK the Windows PLAFs have always checked whether they're running on Windows or not.

      I don't know why you'd want the GTK PLAF, but I think it was only introduced in 1.4.2.

  10. Peeve: correctness is not incremental by notfancy · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    It's an all-or-nothing game. It irks me to no end to hear of "improved correctness". It sounds so phony.

    Having vented my spleen, I'll continue perusing the discussion. Thank you very much for listening.

  11. Re:correctness? by notfancy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You surely must be joking... or is it the late hour that impairs my sense of the ironic? Nevertheless, I'd like to advance a disclaim: I religiously perform my hygienic duties on every morn, so I resent your mention of the odorous populace.

    What can I say to persuade you that "improved correctness" is Newspeak for "we fixed some bugs", which is more transparent but less palatable for a release note - become - press release?

  12. Installing JBuilder on OSX by WatertonMan · · Score: 4, Interesting
    OSX Hints has the following on how to install JBuilder.

    BTW - where did you hear Borland dropped Mac support because of language adherence? I've never heard that. I heard more that people were simply picking Eclipse or Project Builder over JBuilder. I'm not sure why. What little I've played with it JBuilder seemed pretty nice, although my Java friends all seem to dislike its auto-code generation.

    Admittedly Borland has been pushing their .NET plans a lot. I'm not sure if that will end up working for them though. As nice as their product is, it doesn't offer that much more compelling than Visual Studio other than their UML integration. (Which admittedly is pretty damn cool - but I wonder how many in practice use UML)

    1. Re:Installing JBuilder on OSX by inertia187 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Keep in mind, the Mac OS X Hint about installing JBuilder is for versions beyond 7. In fact, that hint is for JB9. If you go to the macintosh forum on Borland's news group, this is all they talk about now. No real support there anymore. Yet, JBuilder 8 and 9 are able to create OS X native loaders. They just never worked until this MRJ Update. ;-)

      where did you hear Borland dropped Mac support because of language adherence?

      Actually, I cannot reveal my source on that. Officially, Borland claims that the SDK just came too late for OS X which is a valid reason in and of itself. JBuilder has to not only have 1.4.1 for source development, JB8 and greater had to be able to run under 1.4.1. But that doesn't explain the lack of JBuilder 9 support, so it has to be something else. And that fact was confirmed to me personally. I wish I had more details, sorry. If that fact is wrong, I'd love to be corrected by someone who knows otherwise.

      Also, look at what SDK OS X exposes - J2SE. It's up to the third parties like Macromedia to expose the J2EE layers on OS X. Borland wants to push J2EE as much as possible, but doesn't want to get into the J2EE design on OS X business like Macromedia has. To this day, OS X cannot support the Borland Application Server because of this. Who's fault is it? Well, if Apple could sell more XServe boxes, then maybe more third parties would take notice.

      Anyway, I can't use JB7 anymore. Not sure who to blame for that. I have a TiBook 667 MHz w/1024 Megs of memory. JB7 is so slow, it's unusable. I just thought I was to blame because I didn't want to pony up the dough and upgrade to a newer TiBook. But when I opened the same project in NetBeans, I could actually get to work - even in debug mode.

      Furthermore, even JBuilder 9 on Windows doesn't support the Tomcat Manager out of the box, where NetBeans does. It's a big advangage for me to be able to modify a servlet or non-JSP Java class and not have to restart Tomcat. In NetBeans, I just access the manager context and inform it that I need to restart it. Yes, I loose the sessions, but I have a way of reloading their states as well.

      I don't expect even JBuilder 10 to support this functionality. It's a small but powerful feature that isn't even exposed by the IDE. Borland has a very good signal to noise ratio on features, but this is one "must have" that has never made it.

      --
      A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
    2. Re:Installing JBuilder on OSX by nikster · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Just a tip if JB doesn't work for you: use Eclipse. it works. even on my tiBook 667/512M.
      IMHO it's better than JB or NetBeans (ugh)... and free and open source, too.

  13. Open Firmware glitch by wazzzup · · Score: 1

    I just installed the update. I have an Open Firmware password running on my PowerBook. Now I can't login. No matter how slow or how many times I type the password, it won't accept it (and no, Caps Lock is not turned on ;o)).

    I don't know if it is related to the Java install or not but it is a serious problem nonetheless. Any suggestions how to correct or circumvent this problem?

    1. Re:Open Firmware glitch by mr100percent · · Score: 0

      Use your OS X (jaguar?) CD, boot up off that by holding down the C key at startup, and in one of the Installer menus, you can reset your password.

      That'll probably work. If not, try the MacNN forums.

    2. Re:Open Firmware glitch by Mikey-San · · Score: 3, Informative

      You cannot reset an Open-Firmware-based password via the OS X installer CD. You can reset the password on an OS install only; Open Firmware settings are not based in the OS, and therefore are autonomous.

      For more information on the subject, check out a Google search:

      http://www.google.com/search?q=open%20firmware%2 0p assword

      --
      Mikey-San
      Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
    3. Re:Open Firmware glitch by sjdownes · · Score: 2, Informative

      The short answer is add or remove some RAM, then reset the PRAM 3 times. More details here.

    4. Re:Open Firmware glitch by jerk · · Score: 2, Informative

      The Java install could not have affected your OF settings. You may try what sjdownes suggested, but you may be hosed. A few Sun customers have been bitten by that and had to have new EEPROMs burned. Unfortunately, I don't think Macs use a socketed EEPROM like Sun boxes do. Good luck.

    5. Re:Open Firmware glitch by drunkenbatman · · Score: 1

      Yeah, you have to "reset" it, which isn't that hard... basically removing a stick of RAM if I remember correctly to let it know something's changed.

  14. freenet works fine still... by lowmagnet · · Score: 2, Informative

    for those who are afraid of it breaking.

    --
    Heute die Welt, morgen das Sonnensystem!
  15. iPIX performance by m4sk0t+ · · Score: 1

    I can't wait to get home and see if this update will fix the iradic performance of the iPIX java viewer 4.0. Has anyone else been able to test yet?

    1. Re:iPIX performance by m4sk0t+ · · Score: 1

      Yup. Looks like the iPIX java viewer v4.0 works much better with this update.

  16. Holy Megabytes Batman by SamBeckett · · Score: 1

    39.7 MB update!! WTF!!

    Yahoo! games better work now so I can finally delete explorer!! WOOHOO.

    1. Re:Holy Megabytes Batman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you using safari for those games? It immediately tells me to go download IE for the PC. Didn't think that was Java related.

      -M

    2. Re:Holy Megabytes Batman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 on OS X works fine with Java Games for me.

  17. no release notes by BortQ · · Score: 1
    The mac java-dev mailing list is currently up in arms about the fact that other then the tiny blurb from software update there are no release notes for this update.

    This is an impediment to mac java developers, and a departure from what apple has done in the past.

    --

    A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
  18. Not Swingin' quite yet (f/ Java shareware dev'r) by mactari · · Score: 5, Informative

    The first version of 1.4.1 for OS X was obviously shooting for enterprise users. Headless apps worked well, and there was even a new way of opening apps that wouldn't create icons on the dock to support headless apps in a seamless, usre friendly fashion.

    As a shareware client app developer who targets the Mac, I've been watching Apple's JVM from a different angle. 1.3.1 was a nice VM, and with the Aqua look and feel I've had some comments that assumed my Java application was native.

    Now as a client app maker, I was looking forward to Java 1.4.1 on OS X for, of all things, mousewheel support. I got that, but I also got a number of issues with any look and feel *other* than Aqua. Menus didn't paint correctly at times, text sometimes didn't paint the way I expected in JTextAreas, and after a few checks I decided it was better to continue to shoot for the 1.3.1 VM rather than rip my code apart to get around OS X-specific quirks. Headless apps might have worked great, but Swing, Java's "de facto GUI toolset of choice" didn't. Comments about JBuilder (it seems the most popular client apps in Java other than Limewire are Java IDEs for all those headless app makers) in this thread help support that.

    If you didn't catch that, I said I targetted 1.3.1 even after the 1.4.1 release. That's right, Apple had enough problems in 1.4.1 (my spin) that they left two nearly mutually exclusive JVMs on each OS X system after upgrade. New Macs wouldn't ship with just 1.4.1. Developer tools allowed and allow developers to force applications to run under just 1.3.1 if they'd prefer. Apple wasn't (isn't?) quite ready to put all the eggs in one basket. Aside -- I wonder if Panther will ship with just 1.4.1?

    From what I've seen of this VM after a few minutes of testing suggest that I might be able to release a new version of my app that uses the latest VM installed, which would be great. That said, the Kunststoff Look & Feel, a relatively trivial extension of the standard Swing Metal (or "Java") Look & Feel still ain't happy out of the box. A few lines from its song when running my app under 1.4.1, new update, below:

    apple.awt.EventQueueExceptionHandler Caught Throwable :
    java.awt.image.RasterFormatException: y lies outside raster
    at sun.awt.image.IntegerInterleavedRaster.createWrita bleChild(IntegerInterleavedRaster.java:462)
    at sun.awt.image.IntegerInterleavedRaster.createChild (IntegerInterleavedRaster.java:516)
    at com.incors.plaf.FastGradientPaintContext$Gradient. getRaster(FastGradientPaintContext.java:53)
    at com.incors.plaf.FastGradientPaintContext$Gradient. access$100(FastGradientPaintContext.java:37)
    at com.incors.plaf.FastGradientPaintContext.getRaster (FastGradientPaintContext.java:142)
    at apple.awt.CSurfaceData.setupPaint(CSurfaceData.jav a:718)

    Fwiw, here are the versions of the old 1.4.1 and the new:
    prompt% java -version
    java version "1.4.1_01"
    Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.1_01-39)
    Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.1_01-14, mixed mode)

    prompt% java -version
    java version "1.4.1_01"
    Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.1_01-69.1)
    Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.1_01-24, mixed mode)

    Interesting to note that Apple is still behind. 1.4.1_02 and 1.4.1_05 have been released by Sun for some time now. Not a big deal, but a little evidence that, though OS X's "built-in" Java support is the best you'll find in an OS, it's hardly "latest and greatest".

    --

    It's all 0s and 1s. Or it's not.
  19. Re:correctness? by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Improved correctness may mean better adherence to the language. Rather than bug fixes, it may mean that 1.4.1 is more "correct" (i.e. compliant), just as Mozilla provides better "correctness" than IE at HTML rendering.

    --
    That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
  20. there now Re:no release notes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yea, they were a little slow in getting release notes together. It's not like we in the open source side of things should complain about other folks getting their documentation done, though !

    http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Release No tes/Java/iJava.html

    http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Release No tes/Java/Java141Update1/index.html

    someone on the apple java-dev list just posted these links. Still missing info on some updated apple extension classes, but it's pretty straightforward what's going on from here. They still have to link these into their main developer website last I checked. It all feels a little rushed, like they wanted to get this out for someone in particular or something...

  21. Yahoo Games? by davebo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Is anyone else experiencing all sorts of oddities with Yahoo Games after this install?

    In Safari, all text is replaced by X'd out squares.

    Camino won't load.

    I've check with Hearts & Pool - am I the only one this is happening to?

    1. Re:Yahoo Games? by skaeight · · Score: 0

      Yeah I have the same problem. What's up with that?

  22. Re: You're a little bit correct. . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    like being slightly pregnant, almost unique, or sort of dead?

  23. Java? by Dr+Reducto · · Score: 1

    Did they improve the response rate of the cup holder?

  24. Show me a perfectly unambiguous specification by lordpixel · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... and I'll show you a perfectly correct implementation.

    The JVM has a reasonable specification. The 1000s of classes that ship with it do not have a good specification. The closest you'll get is deciding whether it should work like version X.X_0X of Sun's JDK on Solaris. Or should you do what the Windows implementation does? or perhaps the Linux version? or maybe you want to do something different again to be in line with Apple's UI specs for OS X?

    Correctness in these large systems is a myth, so I don't see a major problem with something being "more correct".

    --

    Lord Pixel - The cat who walks through walls
    A little bigger on the inside than out

  25. Java 3D at all? by mccalli · · Score: 1
    Vaguely seem to recall someone on this board mentioning that this wasn't implemented on the Mac due to a Sun/Apple spat.

    That's a shame - I really could be doing with that library working under OS X. Does anyone know of any plans?

    Cheers,
    Ian

  26. JOGL by WzDD · · Score: 3, Informative

    The best part about this update is that JOGL, the new Java OpenGL library, now works.

    http://jogl.dev.java.net

  27. Mozilla by aftermath09 · · Score: 1

    Does the 1.4.1 plugin work for mozilla yet? I updated, but no luck so far.

  28. NetBackup GUI? by himself · · Score: 1

    Does anyone know how the NetBackup Java GUI runs on a Mac OS X system, launched from a Sun Solaris NBU server?
    I'm looking into getting a PowerBook to use as my only system (instead of a PC plus a laptop running Mandrake), and I'm curious whether my applications will work; also of interest is admintool and the NBU 3.4 X apps.
    Thanks!

  29. JBoss now unstable? by jlrobins_uncc · · Score: 1

    Anyone else seeing hot redeploys of EARs in JBoss causing abort traps after the update?

  30. Re:correctness? by Tony-A · · Score: 1

    "Correct" is like "optimized." The unwashed masses think it is an absolute, but we CS elite know otherwise.

    or "secure".

    OpenBSD is uber-secure. I'll buy that, moreso after the one hole. Security does matter, and it's not a given.

    Note, they do not say OpenBSD is secure.

  31. java applets over https broken by OpperNerd · · Score: 1

    After the upgrade Java applets over https don't work anymore in Camino and Mozilla. They DO still work in Safari, which is a shitty browser imho.

    --
    -- unix is for people without a social life - Patrick van Eijk