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Apple and Intel means HUGE WIN for Java?
I mean, really: Apple suggests fat binaries, with PPC and Intel code? Yeah, right. Let's take a 2.5MB deliverable and crank that up to a 5MB deliverable. (Yes, I'm oversimplifying a lot.)
Just think: if Apple programmers start using Java, that goes away. The target system - you know, the people who buy the software - just need to install a decent JVM, and the deliverable works. No recompilation. In fact, that deliverable would work on Linux, on Solaris, on Windows... it'd be far easier on the developers and testers (well, slightly less on testers), installers can be standardized...
Of course, this has been the case all along. The issues have been JVM speed more than anything else, and the industry perception that Java is tainted somehow. Well, the JVM speed issue is getting better all the time, and I don't know how to convince people that Java's not somehow evil and corrosive.
so what you are suggesting is that Mac developers shall drop the very
things that make mac os x a better platform than wintel/linux/unix/etc?
we want to be able to use the possibilities present in the platform as good
as we can, giving our users the very best experience.
i am quite a fan of using Java myself, but that is based on web development
or other server-side programming. for a fat client i would very much prefer
to have the possibilities at my choice present.
Dunno - I guess if it's worth your time to compile and test everything
twice, for a platform that's going away, it's your choice. The alternative
is watching the entire market go a year without buying much Apple hardware,
until they switch over. Which would you prefer?
Except for the simple fact that fat binaries have been around longer than
Java. NeXT created fat binaries back in the early 90's when they released
NeXTStep for Intel. It allowed NeXT developers to deliver one bundle for
NeXTStep regardless of the processor architecture. So, how does this mean
a boon for Java? Fat binaries are just as tried and true as Java
deliverables. Furthermore, deliverable size means nothing to to customers
these days as have DVD readers/writers, fat broadband pipes, and boxen come
equiped with hard drives that so large they are nearly impossible to fill
by the average consumer. Heck, Adobe Acrobat reader is 30 MB and AOL
Instant Messenger is 10 or so MB.
Fair enough - except how many of us really run NeXTStep nowadays, fat
binaries or no?
Actually, anyone running Mac OS X today is running a direct decendent of
NeXTSTEP, but that's not the point of my comment. The point is that fat
binaries are a well-established technology that predates Java. The
requirement of their use to achieve cross-platform compatibility will not
drive developers to Java as an alternative. This development will drive
developers more towards Cocoa, as it is the equivalent of the JVM in the
Mac OS X/NeXTSTEP world. The Cocoa runtime carries the same cross-platform
guarentees as the JVM except neutral byte-code.