java on Mac

[Brzezi]

Hi.

I`v read a lot of how efficient and in general brilliant is java on Macs on
apple`s web sites, that its implementation is specially optimized for OS X,
it works faster and uses less memory, only superlatives, but I know that i
can`t believe in everything what is written in such advertisments...

So I have question to you, do you have any experience with Java on Macs?
What can you say about it? is it good choose?

I`m asking, because I`m going to change my laptop 15,4" into something
smaller, and I`m dying for (new)iBook 12", of course I`m not gonna program
on it all the time, I mean, I`m gonna use it as mobile machine for
programing...

thanks for help

Pozdrawiam
Brzezi

 

[Mickey Segal]

I`v read a lot of how efficient and in general brilliant is java on Macs
on
apple`s web sites, that its implementation is specially optimized for OS
X,
it works faster and uses less memory, only superlatives, but I know that i
can`t believe in everything what is written in such advertisments...

Faster is wrong as far as GUI operations. An example is at
www.segal.org/java/CanvasTable3/. Apple has fixed a huge number of bugs in
recent months but the GUI slowness problem is still there.

 

[Mathew McBride]

For the hardware I've run it on (G3 450MHz, 256mb ram, OS X 10.4.2),
Apple's JVM performs pretty well in my opinion. I haven't used it a lot
with GUI apps (I'm keeping that for my 12" powerbook which I am getting
soon), but I've had some email spam processing work which I've run under
the Apple JVM and for the system it's managed to work quite well.

 

[Roedy Green]

I`v read a lot of how efficient and in general brilliant is java on Macs on
apple`s web sites, that its implementation is specially optimized for OS X,
it works faster and uses less memory, only superlatives, but I know that i
can`t believe in everything what is written in such advertisments...

The one big problem is it usually the Mac is substantially behind Sun
in implementing the new features. Now they are on top of things at JDK
1.5.0_05.

 

[Steve W. Jackson]

The one big problem is it usually the Mac is substantially behind Sun
in implementing the new features. Now they are on top of things at JDK
1.5.0_05.

Unfortunately, that tends to be true. It's also true that Sun is the
reason for the delays. They don't provide the needed support for Apple
(and others who must produce their own JVMs) to get them out closer to
Sun's own schedule. But I believe the 1.5 release came out sooner
following Sun's than did 1.4 and its later versions, though I might be
mistaken.

 

[Steve W. Jackson]

Faster is wrong as far as GUI operations. An example is at
www.segal.org/java/CanvasTable3/. Apple has fixed a huge number of bugs in
recent months but the GUI slowness problem is still there.

And what happens with that example if you do it in Swing instead of AWT?

 

[Thomas Hawtin]

Unfortunately, that tends to be true. It's also true that Sun is the
reason for the delays. They don't provide the needed support for Apple
(and others who must produce their own JVMs) to get them out closer to
Sun's own schedule. But I believe the 1.5 release came out sooner
following Sun's than did 1.4 and its later versions, though I might be
mistaken.

Really? Anyone, not just licensees can get hold of the weekly builds.
IIRC, Sun used to supply Apple with two on-site engineers. Apple are
still consistently a year behind in their final releases (IIRC, 1.5.0
had an early developer-only release).

Tom Hawtin

 

[Dimitri Maziuk]

Brzezi sez:
....

I`m asking, because I`m going to change my laptop 15,4" into something
smaller, and I`m dying for (new)iBook 12", of course I`m not gonna program
on it all the time, I mean, I`m gonna use it as mobile machine for
programing...

Well, G4 laptops suck performance-wise compared to similarly priced
Ferraris. So unless you're getting an Intel-based iBook, Java on it
is not going to be super fast regardless. (I'm using a 17" PB to code,
and it could use a faster chip.)

Dima

 

[joseph_daniel_zukiger]

Hi.

I`v read a lot of how efficient and in general brilliant is java on Macs on
apple`s web sites, that its implementation is specially optimized for OS X,
it works faster and uses less memory, only superlatives, but I know that i
can`t believe in everything what is written in such advertisments...

Yeah, superlatives are superlative.

However, I have been using netbeans with jdk5 on a Mac Mini (1.24GHz
G4, 512M RAM) and on a Linux tower with a Sempron 2600 (768M RAM) for
several months, and the speed of the Mini is not that much slower than
on the Linux box.

Netbeans on my five year old iBook (300MHz G3, 192M RAM) tends to
thrash and crash, but that's not surprising.

So I have question to you, do you have any experience with Java on Macs?
What can you say about it? is it good choose?

I like it.

Can't say anything about the soon-to-be iNTEL Macs, so I won't.

 

[joseph_daniel_zukiger]

Really? Anyone, not just licensees can get hold of the weekly builds.
IIRC, Sun used to supply Apple with two on-site engineers. Apple are
still consistently a year behind in their final releases (IIRC, 1.5.0
had an early developer-only release).

Okay, I'll bite.

Why, exactly, do we suppose the weekly builds for Sun's java are
supposed to be magic for Apple's Java? And if the weekly builds for
Sun's Java are supposed to be all that's necessary to keep pace with
Sun, why would IBM want to set up development for an independent,
GPL-ed Java?

 

[Mickey Segal]

And what happens with that example if you do it in Swing instead of AWT?

I haven't tried to do a similar Swing program. We do most of our code in a
way that supports the full range of Java browser environments. If someone
does try with Swing it would be interesting to know of the result.

 

[Scott Ellsworth]

Brzezi sez:
...

Well, G4 laptops suck performance-wise compared to similarly priced
Ferraris. So unless you're getting an Intel-based iBook, Java on it
is not going to be super fast regardless. (I'm using a 17" PB to code,
and it could use a faster chip.)

On the other hand, the Intel machines will be getting the -server
compiler, so those who are getting MacBooks might have a much happier
time.

Scott