As I understand with the 7u6 release the oracle JRE is a full java solution for Mac OS X (10.7.3 and up). It will run graphical apps and applets and can be downloaded from java.com as a fully supported public release.
I know the upcoming IDEA 12 (now in EAP) will get a new launcher stub built in at some point that will allow running with the java 7 runtime instead of the (now legacy) apple java 6 runtime. I don't know if that stub is already included at this time, and if it is, whether the AppCode 1.6 release includes it as well. Perhaps someone from JetBrains can let us know?
I would definitely be in favor of getting that support in soonest, since a forward looking user could easily go for a system with only java 7 and no java 6 installed.
In fact, for AppCode an even better solution would be to not depend on an externally installed JRE at all, but to bundle the required JRE version into the AppCode bundle. There is a short description of this process in the oracle java 7 technotes.
I didn't see a request for this in the issue tracker, so I've created OC-5180 for it.
For an end-user like yourself the main improvements will be in performance, memory efficiency, and security. There are about 5 years worth of such improvements in 7 compared to 6.
1) Apple is no longer actively developing any Java solutions for OS X. So, now that Oracle has released a full consumer version of Java 7 (and it's the only non-Apple version), there is a good chance Java 6 may disappear from Apple's reposistories and will no longer be officially available. This also means that Apple may no longer be fixing bugs and security holes that constantly seem to creep in to Java lately (there is a new zero day exploit for Java 7 update 6 already). So, the upgrade to 7 will have to happen.
2) Oracle has scheduled Java 6 to be EOL (end of life) in Februrary. This date has slipped twice already, but that is the date you should be watching. Even though Oracle provides no updates for Apple's Java, this should also be a huge indicator. If Oracle isn't going to publicly (you can pay for fixes) fix bugs and security holes you can fully expect Apple to ignore them too. Look at the history of how long Apple has taken to fix Java issues when known exploits were in the wild. Flashback, I'm talking about you.
Jetbrains will have to start testing and moving to Java 7 because developers may have no choice but to install 7+, it depends who they work for.
Anyway, just a couple thoughts.
As for end user benefits, there are plenty. But, those benefits come mostly from the benefits given to the developer to make software better, faster and all that jazz. Perhaps the newer G1 garbage collector would be beneficial. Who knows...
As far as I understand, it still does support only command line interface. So it will be impossible to run AppCode with it.
Am I right? Did somebody try?
Oh, I totally missed that. Thanks for clarifying.
We don't yet officially support JDK 7 - it may come later.
As I understand with the 7u6 release the oracle JRE is a full java solution for Mac OS X (10.7.3 and up).
It will run graphical apps and applets and can be downloaded from java.com as a fully supported public release.
I know the upcoming IDEA 12 (now in EAP) will get a new launcher stub built in at some point that will allow
running with the java 7 runtime instead of the (now legacy) apple java 6 runtime.
I don't know if that stub is already included at this time, and if it is, whether the AppCode 1.6 release includes it
as well. Perhaps someone from JetBrains can let us know?
I would definitely be in favor of getting that support in soonest, since a forward looking user could easily go
for a system with only java 7 and no java 6 installed.
In fact, for AppCode an even better solution would be to not depend on an externally installed JRE at all, but
to bundle the required JRE version into the AppCode bundle.
There is a short description of this process in the oracle java 7 technotes.
I didn't see a request for this in the issue tracker, so I've created OC-5180 for it.
From an end-user point of view (I don't do any Java work), are there any specific benefits to look forward to in jre 7?
For an end-user like yourself the main improvements will be in performance, memory efficiency, and security.
There are about 5 years worth of such improvements in 7 compared to 6.
Thanks -- doesn't sound like anything to sneeze at. Look forward to giving it a try when AppCode supports it.
Two huge factors at play here are:
1) Apple is no longer actively developing any Java solutions for OS X. So, now that Oracle has released a full consumer version of Java 7 (and it's the only non-Apple version), there is a good chance Java 6 may disappear from Apple's reposistories and will no longer be officially available. This also means that Apple may no longer be fixing bugs and security holes that constantly seem to creep in to Java lately (there is a new zero day exploit for Java 7 update 6 already). So, the upgrade to 7 will have to happen.
2) Oracle has scheduled Java 6 to be EOL (end of life) in Februrary. This date has slipped twice already, but that is the date you should be watching. Even though Oracle provides no updates for Apple's Java, this should also be a huge indicator. If Oracle isn't going to publicly (you can pay for fixes) fix bugs and security holes you can fully expect Apple to ignore them too. Look at the history of how long Apple has taken to fix Java issues when known exploits were in the wild. Flashback, I'm talking about you.
Jetbrains will have to start testing and moving to Java 7 because developers may have no choice but to install 7+, it depends who they work for.
Anyway, just a couple thoughts.
As for end user benefits, there are plenty. But, those benefits come mostly from the benefits given to the developer to make software better, faster and all that jazz. Perhaps the newer G1 garbage collector would be beneficial. Who knows...
any piece of news about it?
giampaolo