Hi, Quinton,
On Nov 26, 2007, at 7:55 PM, Q wrote:
> On 27/11/2007, at 10:01 AM, Jerry W. Walker wrote:
>
>> Are you guys following the recent announcements on the Apple Java-
>> Dev by Landon Fuller and the discussion surrounding them?
>>
>> It's not yet time to push WO or Wonder to Java Version 6, but I'm
>> amazed at his apparent rate of progress.
>
> Other than a minor speed boost, what Java 6 features are so
> appealing from a WO perspective?
Since you asked...
For WO, I don't see a great many advantages going to Java 6. I think
that there's NO advantage to going there yet. However, I'm a great
fan of those who take action rather than stand around and whine. I'm
particularly disenchanted with those who whine on the Java-Dev
mailing list, having waded through innumerable such messages from the
panicked and hysterical following Apple's pulling Java 6 preview with
no indication of why, when or if it would follow up with its own
release.
However, as much as I dislike those messages in that forum, I also
dislike Apple's cone of silence around developer products. Apple (or
Steve Jobs) has proven the value of releasing news on its schedule
for consumer products. Doing so certainly enhances the PR at the
appropriate time for product success. I don't think the same can be
said of remaining silent on corporate plans for releasing developer
products. We've all suffered from this in the WO market place. Apple
is the only large computer company I know of who does this and most
people in the enterprise market dislike the practice enough to shun
Apple and its products in that arena.
Despite that, I understand that a large number of Java developers
have gravitated to Apple laptops as reported from the last Sun World
conference. Many of these people have to stay fairly current with
Java releases and they're justifiably displeased at Apple's silence
on the issue, having made a personal investment in Apple's products,
based on Steve Jobs own announcement that he would make the Mac the
best Java support platform and, to a larger degree, his fulfillment
of that promise to date.
I had earlier read the timeline referenced by Alex Cone (not to be
confused with Apple's cone of silence :-) ). Like most, I'm fairly
confident that Apple will release Java 6 soon, but unless you work at
Apple and happen to know someone in the management team or the Java
development group who's willing to share, you don't really know that
they will. Even then, given Steve Jobs legendarily arbitrary nature,
you're only working with a high confidence interval.
Meanwhile, it was delightful to see Landon Fuller grab the reins of
open sourcing Java on the Mac and start running hard. Unless this
effort causes Apple to drop Java support altogether, I think it's a
very healthy alternative to Apple's cone of silence and the general
Java market response to it.
Given that a large number of people on this mailing list are of a
similar action oriented vs. whining nature. I thought I would mention
Landon's effort here in case you hadn't seen it. Enjoy.
Having said all this, I admit to a mischievous sense of delight that
Apple doesn't announce its developer product plans. I've too often
worked in development teams where some clueless manager made an
hysterically optimistic guess at a delivery date of some product on
which I was working only to have that date carved into stone by the
downstream groups who made plans around it. I've had too many
holidays and personal plans destroyed by such managers in often
futile efforts to meet those delivery date guesses. Apple's silence
feels like a refreshing counter to that. But I'm sure I'm the only
one on this list to have faced such idiocy. :-)
Regards,
Jerry
>> Of course, the hard part is integrating the Apple look & feel and
>> he hasn't touched that yet.
>>
>> Here's his latest:
>>
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>> From: Landon Fuller <landon..hreerings.net>
>>> Date: November 26, 2007 4:55:11 PM EST
>>> To: java-de..ists.apple.com
>>> Subject: SoyLatte Project Page
>>>
>>> I've created a proper project page for SoyLatte:
>>> http://landonf.bikemonkey.org/static/soylatte/
>>>
>>> I envision the following "meta-goals" for the project:
>>> * Support for Java 6 Development on Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5
>>> * OpenJDK support for Java 7 on Mac OS X
>>> * On-time release of Java 7 for Mac OS X, for all recent
>>> releases (>= 10.4) of Mac OS X.
>>>
>>> In support of those goals, I see the following as the first-order
>>> TODO list:
>>> * Integration of Quaqua as an Aqua Look & Feel.
>>> * Native AWT Swing (as opposed to X11).
>>> * Sound support.
>>> * Integration with the Mac OS X certificate store (x509).
>>> * Implement any missing functionality.
>>>
>>> -landonf
>>>
--
__ Jerry W. Walker,
WebObjects Developer/Instructor for High Performance Industrial
Strength Internet Enabled Systems
jerrywwalke..mail.com
203 278-4085 office
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