October 2007

Does Apple hate Java?

So, Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) is there and Java SE 6 for the Mac is not. Which is a pity, because the latest Java version (available for many other platforms for over 10 months now) offers massive improvements concerning desktop integration and performance.

While there always has been a delay between Sun's Java releases and Apple's own implementations, leaving this gap open for too long time can urge developers - such as James Gosling, inventor of the Java technology - to abandon the Mac platform. Of cause you can use Parallels/VMWare/BootCamp and run Windows/Linux/Solaris for Java 6 development. But why would you want to buy a Mac then?

Does Apple hate Java? It almost seems so. At least Java obviously isn't a priority at Apple. Or maybe it's just that Apple found a bug in their Java 6 implementation that prevented the release with Max OS X 10.5.0? We don't know for sure.

And this actually is the biggest problem: Apple's silence. There's still some hope, yet, and if you read between the lines (there had been a developer preview of Java 6 for Mac OS X 10.4), I expect the release of Java 6 for Mac OS X within the next few days or weeks.

But if you run a company and do serious software development, you need a reliable roadmap for your platform of choice. And if that isn't available for whatever reason, you need at least some kind of commitment to release certain products within a certain time frame. Omitting both means "we don't care about your needs". Which might easily lead to developers ignoring the platform. Which would really be a pity, because the Mac not only deserves great Cocoa applications, but great Java applications as well.

So, come on Apple, even if you cannot release Java 6 right now, at least let us know your commitment to still provide the best Java experience with the latest Java version - and when to expect the release eventually.

iCab 3.0.3 Beta 461

More than two weeks ago Alexander released a small bugfix update for registered iCab users:

• Workaround for JavaScript code which expects a reentrant script engine.
• Fixed a bug when converting certain cyrilic upper case letters into lower case letters (and vice verca)
• Bugfix for certain styles when set for BODY and HTML elements.
• Workaround for the "more" menu of google.com, which expects that browsers ignore all web standards when resolving relative URLs like "#".

Now, I'm off to make myself some chocolate and wait for the next major iCab release.