Apple Updates to Java 1.4.1

A user writes, "Apple has caught up with the times and updated their Java to 1.4.1, bringing it completely up to date with the newest release from Sun. It now takes advantage of Aqua and Quartz Extreme, is usable via Universal Access, and can be controlled through AppleScript." It provides 1149 new classes over 1.3.1, a new native I/O API, updated XML tools (SAX 1.0/2.0, DOM 1.0/2.0, XSLT), I18N and L10N enhancements for Unicode 3.0, regexes, IPv6, faster loading of applets, improved caching, storing of certs in the Keychain, faster UI, more Aqua-like UI ... and native Java applet support for Safari.

Re:Documentation/Changelog/New futures

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

I don't see how this is newsworthy.

Read the announcement carefully.

If you were a user of MacOS X, you would understand what a second-class citizen this has been in terms of Java. Native GUI support (Cocoa, Quartz) was non-existant. Java ran great - with CLI! This was a REAL shortcoming for users, untill now.

With a fully accelerated GUI and enterprise security features, OS X cannot be summarily dismissed as a client OS by business, at least not on the JVM features.

Refreshing . . .

[bedouin]

It's nice to have OS X remind me of updates that actually IMPROVE performance. This is real nice coming from a Windows world where every week there's a new "Windows update," fixing some bug that was discovered 2 weeks before.

The difference? In Windows land an update meant, "Fuck, what 'security patch' is ready to be downloaded now? This is so annoying." In OS X, when software update pops up I'm generally wondering what new improvements there are to things overall, and happy about it.

Re:Arrrg ( ... the price we pay)

[Pyrometer]

Enough with the fricken restarts... this isn't part of the OS.

I first thought of this but realised the following:

1. When upgrading from JAVA 1.1.x to 1.2 on a Solaris platform I had to install a mirrad of software updates for the OS for JAVA to run. This has probably been the case for going to 1.3 and 1.4 although I havn't had to "administrate" a Solaris system to do this in the last couple of years.
2. Apple seems to have integrated JAVA quite a bit in to the overall OSX structure (look at those pretty bubble diagrams showing all the OS layers). This probably explains why JAVA applications run so damn fast compared to Windows machines running the same application.
3. As noted in point 2, your comment "this isn't part of the OS" is probably not correct. From what I see at the layer point of view ... it seems JAVA is a 'part' of the OS.

I don't think it is a bad price to pay considering the performance of JAVA applications on OSX ... but your right it was annoying, I hate losing my uptime on the powerbook :)