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Sam Venning · Sep 28, 2002, 09:39 AM

I'm not so sure Mac is a good platform for writing Java. I'm studying Java at uni and have been given an assignment that requires using Regular Expressions. I've searched the Java 1.3.1 API and can't find it. My class mate tells me I need Java 1.4... only it doesn't seem to be available on Mac OS 10.2.1. Eeeek! Maybe I can't do the assignment.

http://developer.apple.com/java/faq/

Kristoff · Sep 28, 2002, 03:15 PM

Originally posted by Sam Venning:
I'm not so sure Mac is a good platform for writing Java. I'm studying Java at uni and have been given an assignment that requires using Regular Expressions. I've searched the Java 1.3.1 API and can't find it. My class mate tells me I need Java 1.4... only it doesn't seem to be available on Mac OS 10.2.1. Eeeek! Maybe I can't do the assignment.

http://developer.apple.com/java/faq/

True, Apple is not going to release 1.4. They are heading right for 1.4.1--which SUN just released. So I would expect Apple to lag a month or so.

But, check out Jakarta RegExp

mmj_ngen · Oct 4, 2002, 11:32 AM

This maybe a little late for your assignment, but there are a couple of other regular expression libraries that you may want to consider depending on your needs. That being JRegex and ORO .

I prefer JRegex over either Jakarta offerings, but that's because it satified my needs the best. JRegex is more powerful than Jakarta Regexp and cleaner to implement than ORO, but that's just my preference.

Sam Venning · Oct 17, 2002, 10:35 PM

I'm really angry that Apple is dragging its feet when it comes to supporting Java 2. To date Apple provides only Java 2 Version 1.3 VM... yet the latest version for most other platforms is Version 1.4.1.

This has cause me a lot of greif for my university Java assignment. I had to write extra code to do a bit of validation. My classmates used regular expressions (available in Java 2 Version 1.4).

My class mates are telling me to ditch the Mac and get Windows for Java development. Because Mac OS is stuck at Java 2 Version 1.3 I'd have to agree. (Catch up Apple!)

Kristoff · Oct 17, 2002, 11:23 PM

Your freinds are morons.

JDK 1.4 for Windows was buggy as hell.

JDK 1.4.1 is much better, but it was just released. Apple's 1.4.1 will be stable and fast and should be out soon.

Windows sucks--been there, done that.

sadie · Oct 18, 2002, 04:03 AM

Why on earth is a tutor requiring 1.4 so soon after it's release? That's just nuts. Not only are first versions buggy, but it takes people time to port to every platform iteration, install widely, etc. I think there's something wrong at your Uni.

absmiths · Oct 18, 2002, 10:00 AM

Originally posted by sadie:
Why on earth is a tutor requiring 1.4 so soon after it's release? That's just nuts. Not only are first versions buggy, but it takes people time to port to every platform iteration, install widely, etc. I think there's something wrong at your Uni.

Because they have the luxury of being in Academia. I don't know of any real-world apps being deployed with 1.4 only, and no production installations that I use are anything but 1.3.1_x. As many people in this thread have already indicated, there are plenty of FREE regular expression packages available for Java, and if you want to be really cool (and not have any dependencies) you could use JavaCC to create a specialised parser to parse your text exactly the way you want. It's also free.

So stop whining - at least Apple is dedicated to shipping a solid Java with the OS, unlike MS.

Sam Venning · Oct 18, 2002, 10:22 PM

Thanks for the response guys. Yes, I hear what you are saying. I believe Mac OS 10 will be a better platform for Java development. I think I just needed a bit of friendly Mac OS fraternity support and reassurance.

I didn�t have time to look up the extra regular expression classes for my uni assigment. I am sure looking forward to Java 1.4.1 on Mac OS 10.x. I hope it isn't too far off.

Cheers.

Thinine · Oct 19, 2002, 11:53 AM

Java 1.4 support should be out by the end of the year.

Hvdvrk · 02:22 PM

I agree with Kristoff, 1.4 is useless at least for deploying apps. 1.4.1 is looking fine and I'm glad Apple skipped the horrible 1.4 release.

Edit: usually helps to write correct names...

chadseld · Oct 20, 2002, 10:51 PM

As I understand it, its not that apple is dragging their feet supporting 1.4, it is that they are doing a major overhaul of a bunch of stuff in the VM. For instance, swing widgets should be more like cocoa widgets rather than a sudo-carbon java specific dodads that they are now. I know it is tough to wait, but I am very excited about what apple is doing. It is smart to make sure your foundation is strong before adding to it....

absmiths · Oct 21, 2002, 09:51 AM

Originally posted by chadseld:
As I understand it, its not that apple is dragging their feet supporting 1.4, it is that they are doing a major overhaul of a bunch of stuff in the VM. For instance, swing widgets should be more like cocoa widgets rather than a sudo-carbon java specific dodads that they are now. I know it is tough to wait, but I am very excited about what apple is doing. It is smart to make sure your foundation is strong before adding to it....

Especially when 9 out of 10 posts in this forum are about how slow the Java Swing UI is. I would expect people to be more patient and give Apple time to do this correctly.

Christopher Flynn · Oct 21, 2002, 10:44 AM

I too have a teacher requiring java 1.4 for our assignments and fortunately we have some sun servers at school that we can login to so that we can do our assignments but I think Mac OS X is still a great platform to do java development on . I don't blame mac for not having 1.4, I blame my teacher for requiring it. I particularily like the OS X like swingui. Hopefully we'll get 1.4.1 soon and everyone will be jealous.
-Chris

hayesk · Oct 25, 2002, 01:27 PM

Your prayers have been answered. Check out http://developer.apple.com/java/index.html

There's a bit about it on MacNN's front page today, too. It's pre-release, but I imagine it will have what you need.

udecker · Oct 25, 2002, 04:04 PM

Originally posted by hayesk:
Your prayers have been answered. Check out http://developer.apple.com/java/index.html

There's a bit about it on MacNN's front page today, too. It's pre-release, but I imagine it will have what you need.

Have they removed the link? I can't seem to find it.

Anyone care to email me (udecker@udecker.com) if they were able to download it before it was snatched?

Thanks
-uD

Kristoff · Oct 26, 2002, 12:44 AM

Gotta be an ADC member.

http://developer.apple.com

Online membership is free and gets you access.

Also, this release is NDA'd, so it's not supposed to be discussed outside the official Apple forum. Read the agreement when you d/l it for info on that forum.

Sam Venning · Jan 20, 2003, 05:32 AM

Sigh. Sill no final release of Java 1.4.1 on Mac OS 10. When, oh, when is it going to happen?

asmodeus · Jan 20, 2003, 11:25 AM

For what it's worth, in the subject I did at Uni last semester that required us to use Java we had the option of using 1.3 or 1.4. Most of the Uni computers weren't even upgraded past 1.3.1 for the entire semester, including the ones in the IT labs.

Still, I hope the final of 1.4 is released by March or so at the latest, as I suspect 1.4 will be standard for some subjects this year. I downloaded 1.4 DP8, but I haven't bothered installing it.

legacyb4 · Jan 23, 2003, 11:22 PM

Here's a good one...

http://www.n-ix.com/

They make a Java-based Novell Groupwise client which should be able to run on OS X *if* you have 1.4.1 or better...

Guess I have to wait a little longer to test this one out.

Cheers.

Originally posted by absmiths:
Because they have the luxury of being in Academia. I don't know of any real-world apps being deployed with 1.4 only, and no production installations that I use are anything but 1.3.1_x.
So stop whining - at least Apple is dedicated to shipping a solid Java with the OS, unlike MS.

bygimis · Jan 24, 2003, 05:23 AM

Originally posted by Sam Venning:
I'm really angry that Apple is dragging its feet when it comes to supporting Java 2. To date Apple provides only Java 2 Version 1.3 VM... yet the latest version for most other platforms is Version 1.4.1.

Have you any idea how much work Apple have to do to support new Java versions?

Microsoft only support part of Java 1.1, not even 1.2! Windows and Linux have the latest VM because Sun release it. Until Java goes fully standard lead Apple will always be behind Sun, because Sun set the standards!

hayesk · Jan 24, 2003, 09:31 AM

Originally posted by legacyb4:
Here's a good one...

http://www.n-ix.com/

They make a Java-based Novell Groupwise client which should be able to run on OS X *if* you have 1.4.1 or better...

Guess I have to wait a little longer to test this one out.

Cheers.

Does it not work with the pre-release 1.4.1?

Sam Venning · Jan 25, 2003, 04:20 AM

Well this prediction didn't happen...

Originally posted by Thinine:
Java 1.4 support should be out by the end of the year.

Thinine · Jan 25, 2003, 02:44 PM

Technically it did since the developer previews are out. We should see a full public release any day now.

yeslekmc · Jan 25, 2003, 02:48 PM

Originally posted by legacyb4:
Here's a good one...

http://www.n-ix.com/

They make a Java-based Novell Groupwise client which should be able to run on OS X *if* you have 1.4.1 or better...

Guess I have to wait a little longer to test this one out.

Cheers.

I've used the Novell GroupWise client for years. This includes the Web Client as well. While the web client has always worked under Windows ('98, 2000, XP), It has never worked (except in pure HTML mode) on any version of the Mac OS I've ever tried. And this is going back several years now, at least since I think 1998. The GroupWise JAVA client has always told me that JAVA was not available no matter which browser I use or version of the Mac OS. I've tried running from 8.6, 9.0.4, 9.2.x, and various flavors of Mac OS X. I've tried various realeases of JAVA too. Even on Mac OS 8.6 and 9.0.4 I would go out and download the latest JAVA runtimes and it just never would run.

But the HTML/Javascript client does work pretty well though. So at least I can still access my GroupWise email via the internet. But the JAVA version works much better, especially if you need to use the Address Book.

Angus_D · Jan 27, 2003, 01:01 PM

Originally posted by Thinine:
Technically it did since the developer previews are out. We should see a full public release any day now.

s/day/month

Sam Venning · Jan 27, 2003, 07:08 PM

BS. Technically it did not! I don't regard a preview (I belive with most of the SWING stuff not working) to be enough for us to regard this as a Java 1.4.1 release. As I said, if it isn't available by the time the uni semester starts (end of Feb) I'll be really, really mad.

Originally posted by Thinine:
Technically it did since the developer previews are out. We should see a full public release any day now.

Thinine · Jan 29, 2003, 06:30 PM

Originally posted by Sam Venning:
BS. Technically it did not! I don't regard a preview (I belive with most of the SWING stuff not working) to be enough for us to regard this as a Java 1.4.1 release. As I said, if it isn't available by the time the uni semester starts (end of Feb) I'll be really, really mad.

What is your problem? If you really want it that bad, become an online developer and download the latest preview. Geez.

MadBrowser · Jan 29, 2003, 06:36 PM

The developer previews have been coming out at a good clip, fixing things left and right. It is very stable for non GUI stuff and from what I understand, really getting there when it comes to the GUI stuff in the last few releases (I only do J2EE programming).

Anyway, I get the "feeling" that a public release is imminent based on what I have seen. I have no facts or evidence.

There is NOTHING stopping you getting the previews.

JLL · Jan 30, 2003, 03:29 PM

Originally posted by Sam Venning:
BS. Technically it did not! I don't regard a preview (I belive with most of the SWING stuff not working)

Why don't you just sign up for an ADC Online account and see for yourself?

Arkham_c · Feb 1, 2003, 09:58 PM

For most users 1.4 doesn't offer much over 1.3.1. Apple's 1.4.1 implementation will have some nice features as far as performance and looking nice, but the language improvements in 1.4 do not really affect most developers in any significant way.

The list of features new to 1.4 is here:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.1/docs/.../features.html

Fdanna · Feb 6, 2003, 03:08 PM

Developer Preview 10 is out for Java 1.4.1 and can be downloaded from the ADC site.

Anyone care to hazzard a guess as to how long before it's implemented in the OS?

10.3? or a Software Update?

Gul Banana · Feb 6, 2003, 08:52 PM

Originally posted by Fdanna:
10.3? or a Software Update?

Almost certainly.