Forget Sun and IBM - Apple Should Open Source its JVM
I *really* like my Powerbook, but Java on Apple hurts on days like today. Serious thought -- maybe Apple should open source their JVM. If it lags behind everyone else, and is buggy, and doesn't run on anything but Apple hardware anyway... they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Sure, a non-binary release, uncertified build, probably needs to be called Tea instead of Java, but that is okay. Once it passes TCK, then call it Java. I know of a *lot* of good Java hackers who would love to help Apple get their JVM in shape.
*sigh*
writebacks...
I agree...
Best thing I've read all day. Wasn't the Apple JVM suppose to keep pace after 1.4? All I've seen so far is Java 5.0 will be part of OS X Tiger. That will be the middle of next year. 10 months is not "pace" in my book.
They already have Cocoa... Are you suggesting they go for the whole gamut of hot beverage? ;) More seriously, Apple is seriously under-staffed when it comes to Java (or even maybe generally) and it shows in their developer support (if you're not working for Adobe or Microsoft, that is)...
I was of the impression that Apple was about to align its jvm with sun's. That is fine if they could ship it soon after Sun releases their jvm, but i think maby Apple is using java as a selling point for 10.4 - and ofcourse that is a shame, I for one would fork out the money for 10.4 anyways .. Of course this may be totally wrong - and maybe the real reason is what Cris L says - they are perhaps under-staffed
Amen to that... but I don't think its their call. The Apple VM is, as I understand it, heavily derrived from the Solaris VM/hotspot code under license from Sun. I'm not sure, but it may be what is keeping Apple from offering wider releases of their betas. (As the beta Tiger for Tiger is now available to apple seed people*) * I can say that cause I'm not under NDA, though your not supposed to know about it unless you are under NDA.
Tiger for Tiger
I don't think it is any secret that it is available for people testing Tiger, last I heard (soon after WWDC) it was pretty rough around the edges still. The fact that it is tied hoof and nail to Tiger is... a major drawback.
Why not start one yourself(with your buddy hackers)? For instance take Blackdown or Kaffe and build on it.
Amateurism
The last thing we need is another buggy, half-baked VM for OS X. The official one is good enough for me right now. I wouldn't bother installing another one, especially if it were a port of Kaffe. Java's problem is not that it's closed-source but that the companies controlling or using the franchise have far too few people working on it.
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