MArkee

If we went into performance comparison, we’d have to distinguish between server applications (servlet container apps, j2ee etc) and desktop/client applications (swing etc).

So i focused purely on the development aspect. Because in the end, you can develop Java apps on just about anything with a CPU and deploy them on hardware/OS that’s better suited for running in production.

I do think Apple would be wise to get Java technologies out faster and also push Java-Cocoa more. But realistically almost everyone who uses Java either puts a Cocoa front end on it or just uses Swing with the small changes that the Cocoa bridge supplies. So I can understand the problem.

The main reason why many java programmers on Mac have no intention to switch, is
- for fear of getting even further away from cross-platform (needing to give up the vast Java libraries, switching language: although trivial as it seems, it is just busy work to convert Obj-C-only computational code back to Java-only computational code)
- our refusal to deal with Objective-C’s primitive memory allocation model.

On the other hand, I can understand that Apple doesn’t find it cost effective to provide parallel documentation sets for both Obj-C and java.

IMHO, however, there is a middle way,
since many of us have enough SmallTalk and C knowledge to actually be able to understand Obj-C code examples:
as long as the java to Objective-C bridge continues to work, I’d be happy to look up the Obj-C documentation.
All it takes is to include occasional links in the Obj-C documentation to java remarks that point out those issues that need extra attention for java programmers.
(to go one step further, the Obj-C docs could be adorned with java icon popups to display short notes such as java calling sequences).

I just hoping these comments provide some ammunition for everyone who is in a position to lobby with Apple for maintaining minimal cocoa+java support for java.

the “best” platform would also be top notch performance wise, no?

I am happy with the performance for most things, but I still think java on stupid windows or so is faster, no ?

But you have it out of the box, and it just runs – giving the average user a good tool that might or might not be used so often though :-)