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Seems like I'll have to switch back to Windows :-(

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I'm curious what Jetbrains' take on this issue is.  Is this end of Java on the Mac?  Will Oracle be picking the project up?  

It seems like it could be a devastating blow to Java developers on the Mac, and doesn't bode well for the in-progress OS X-only Objective-C IDE that's been talked about.

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Hello Tobin,

Right now we know as much as anyone else about this issue. We don't plan
to stop our OSX-specific Java development. Whatever the final outcome of
this issue (Apple reverting its decision like it reverted its changes to
the iOS developer agreement, Apple open-sourcing its Java implementation,
Oracle providing its own port of Java for MacOS X, or SoyLatte becoming the
de-facto standard), we're certain that some version of Java on MacOS X will
remain available. And if it means that we'll have to do a lot of additional
work to adapt our platform to the new Java implementation, well, then we'll
do it, as we don't seem to have much choice in this regard.

I'm curious what Jetbrains' take on this issue is.  Is this end of
Java on the Mac?  Will Oracle be picking the project up?

It seems like it could be a devastating blow to Java developers on the
Mac, and doesn't bode well for the in-progress OS X-only Objective-C
IDE that's been talked about.


--
Dmitry Jemerov
Development Lead
JetBrains, Inc.
http://www.jetbrains.com/
"Develop with Pleasure!"


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Lets not forget that Apple has a gigantic investment in Java on the server side.
They wouldn't do this without confidence that a viable JDK will continue to be available.

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There are plenty of companies that use Macs to develop Java applications (i.e. Google). Those Java developers I know personally that are on Mac have at least played with iPhone apps. I still can't believe that Apple is trying to scare those away. And: isn't the iTunes store running on Java?

Thank you for clarifying JetBrains' position on this. This gives a little hope in those dark times. But hey, we'll get an app store and full screen apps with 10.7. Haven't we all been waiting for that? *sigh*

Dirk

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IMHO, this is just another sign that Apple has become (or is becoming) what in the past we all criticized Microsoft for being: a tech giant that wants to control everything & anything, and stifle any competition whether real or perceived. Even at a cost to their customers. Google develops a phone OS based on Java that competes with the iPhone. iPhone starts to lose market share (or at least not grow as quickly). Solution: punish all Mac users (and devleopers that want to write cross platform apps) by removing Java from Mac in an attempt to hurt Java and thus in turn Google and Android. Just my ever so humble opinion.

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I'm not quite so doom and gloom. I develop on OS X with Intellij and I'm confident Java will always be supported on Mac. If Java support is dropped and no viable alternative is available Apple will lose marketshare and developers. Personally, my preference is for Apple to stop developing their own JVM and support third-party JVMs like every other operating system.

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If Sun/Oracle develops the JDKs for Linux, Windows, etc... I would think that they will do it for the Mac.  At least I hope they do it.

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Sad as it is, I think you're right. Apple (actually, Steve Jobs) want to
be too big for their boots :(

IMHO, this is just another sign that Apple has become (or is becoming)
what in the past we all criticized Microsoft for being: a tech giant
that wants to control everything & anything, and stifle any
competition whether real or perceived. Even at a cost to their
customers. Google develops a phone OS based on Java that competes with
the iPhone. iPhone starts to lose market share (or at least not grow
as quickly). Solution: punish all Mac users (and devleopers that want
to write cross platform apps) by removing Java from Mac in an attempt
to hurt Java and thus in turn Google and Android. Just my ever so
humble opinion.



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It's not much, but here's what Steve Jobs says on the matter.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/frasers/5104179782/

Guess it's up to Oracle to step up.  I would hope Apple would at least gives Oracle their latest codebase.

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Oracle can as well start charging for Java port to Macs. But Apple users are used to pay extra for the privilege of using Apple products, I am sure they'll be able to cough up an extra couple of hundred bucks to get the latest Java from AppStore.

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At least we have OpenJDK1 for Mac OS X, SWT2 and SwingWT3 as a replacement for Apples JDK.

1 http://landonf.bikemonkey.org/static/soylatte/
2 http://www.eclipse.org/swt/
3 http://swingwt.sourceforge.net/

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