---

Introduction to Java Development Guide for Mac OS X

Contents:

Who Should Read This Document?
Organization of This Document
See Also
Filing and Tracking Bugs

Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) for Mac OS X offers a Java environment featuring a high level of integration with Mac OS X. This integration brings together the Java platform's versatility and Mac OS X's advanced technologies to offer users a wider selection of applications and developers a first-class development and deployment platform.

Mac OS X v.10.4 includes Java 1.4.2 right out of the box and offers J2SE 5.0 as a Software Update. Combined, these Java distributions open up the entire Mac user base to Java application and applet developers, and conversely, the world of Java applications to Mac OS X users.

While Java's promise of "write once, run anywhere" is true on Mac OS X, there are a number of things you should do to make your application's user experience fall in line with various conventions and behaviors that Mac users have come to expect from their applications.This document attempts to highlight items so you can spend your time writing applications, not trying to figure out why something doesn’t work the way you think it should.

Who Should Read This Document?

This document is for the Java developer interested in writing Java applications for Mac OS X version 10.4 with J2SE 5.0 or Java 1.4.2. This document is primarily for developers of pure Java applications, but it may also be useful for WebObjects and Cocoa Java development. It focuses primarily on J2SE 5.0 developers targeting J2SE 5.0 Release 4 on Mac OS X v.10.4, but is also applicable to Java 1.4.2 development on Mac OS X. When a difference between Apple’s implementations of J2SE 5.0 and Java 1.4.2 is present, J2SE 5.0 is assumed to be the default and Java 1.4.2 differences are noted. This reflects how J2SE 5.0 is default version of Java on Mac OS X v.10.4 as of J2SE Release 4.

Information on Java development for previous versions of Mac OS X using Java 1.3.1 is available in a separate document, Java 1.3.1 Development for Mac OS X.

This is not a tutorial for the Java language. This document assumes you have a basic understanding of Java development. Many resources exist in print and on the web for learning the Java programming language. If you are new to programming in Java, you may want to start with one of Sun’s tutorials available online at http://java.sun.com/learning/new2java/.

Organization of This Document

This guide contains the following articles:

• “Overview of Java for Mac OS X” describes the Java platforms available on Mac OS X.

• “Apple Developer Tools for Java” introduces you to Apple suite of developer tools.

• “Java Deployment Options for Mac OS X” dicusses how you can distribute your Java application on Mac OS X.

• “User Interface Toolkits for Java” shows you the different user interface elements common in Mac OS X.

• “Core Java APIs on Mac OS X” discusses the how core Java APIs vary on Mac OS X.

• “The Java VM for Mac OS X ” describes important information about Mac OS X's Java virtual machine.

• “Mac OS X Integration for Java” provides you with some handy tips for making your Java application act and feel more like a native Mac OS X application.

See Also

General information about Mac OS X, including more on many of the topics discussed in this document can be found in Mac OS X Technology Overview.

Answers to frequently asked questions about Java for Mac OS X are addressed in the Java FAQ.

General information on previous versions of Java for Mac OS X can be found in the Java Release Notes.

This document and other Java documentation for Mac OS X, including the Javadoc API reference, is available in the Java Reference Library. A subset of this documentation is installed in /Developer/ADC Reference Library/documentation/Java/ on a Mac OS X system with the Mac OS X Developer Tools. You can view this documentation through a web browser or through Xcode (from Xcode’s Help menu, choose Documentation and then click Java ).

The main Apple website for Java technology, http://developer.apple.com/java/, contains links to information about Java development in Mac OS X.

The java-dev mailing list is a great source of information on a wide range of Java development topics in Mac OS X. You can sign up for this list at http://lists.apple.com/.

Sun’s Java web site, http://java.sun.com/ is the essential reference point for Java development in general.

Filing and Tracking Bugs

If you find issues with the implementation of Java that are not covered in this document or you want to follow the resolution of an issue, you may do so online through Radar, Apple’s bug tracking system. To access Radar, you need an Apple Developer Connection (ADC) account. You can view the ADC membership options, including the free online membership, at http://developer.apple.com/membership/. With an ADC membership, you can file and view bugs at http://bugreport.apple.com/. When filing new bugs for Java in Mac OS X, please use Java (new bugs) for Component and X as Version.

---