Future of OxygenXML on a Mac?

[xchaotic]

Just curious if the recent developments:
-Apple dropping support for Java
-Mac App store not allowing java apps
- Oracle being oracle

have affected your roadmap for the Mac?


I've grown very attached to my Oxygen installation on a Mac, I hope there will be a decent way out of it?
I guess for the foreseeable future, there is no problem with using existing Apple JVM, but I'm just a bit concerned...

[adrian]

Hello,

-Apple dropping support for Java

Apple has marked as deprecated their Java Virtual Machine (JVM) implementation. This means that starting with the next version of Mac OS X 10.7, this JVM may be removed [on Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6 Java will remain built-in]. Starting with Mac OS X 10.7 all Java applications will most likely have to use another third party JVM.

Unfortunately, at this time, no other JVM has a similar user interface integration in the operating system as the one currently offered by Apple.


Current situation

oXygen has two distributions:
- the standalone AWT/Swing application
- the SWT plugin for Eclipse.

AWT/Swing based applications like Netbeans, JDeveloper and the standalone version of oXygen, will all be affected. The result will be a user interface that is not smoothly integrated in the Mac look and feel, and possibly the entire application being displayed using the X Window System.

Eclipse has the nice feature of using native user interface controls on each platform, directly, without the need of AWT. So, an application using SWT will look and perform exactly the same, no matter the JVM it uses.


What we can do

1. If no JVM rises to the challenge of implementing AWT/Swing support with the appropriate Mac look and feel, we'll pack a stripped down version of Eclipse (called a Rich Client Platform) with the oXygen XML Editor plugin and the OpenJDK JVM. This has already been tested and works on the current Mac OS X operating systems independent from the Apple JVM. This may very well be the new oXygen distribution for Mac OS X 10.7.

2. If things go as they should, Oracle will pick up where Apple left off and will provide a JVM for the Mac, with full AWT/Swing integration. In this case, the standalone oXygen distribution will continue its existence on the Mac OS X platform in the current form, possibly with the JVM built-in to make it work out-of-the-box.

-Mac App store not allowing java apps

Hopefully, the Mac App Store will not be the only channel for Mac OS X applications in the future. It should be possible to download and install programs directly from the developer's website.

For us, as a Java developing company, this represents a drawback, since the exposure to the potential customers will be somewhat reduced, but this is not a show-stopper.

Regards,
Adrian

[adrian]

Oracle and Apple have reached an agreement and the future of Java on Mac OS X has been clarified.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/11/12openjdk.html

REDWOOD SHORES and CUPERTINO, California—November 12, 2010—Oracle and Apple® today announced the OpenJDK project for Mac OS® X. Apple will contribute most of the key components, tools and technology required for a Java SE 7 implementation on Mac OS X, including a 32-bit and 64-bit HotSpot-based Java virtual machine, class libraries, a networking stack and the foundation for a new graphical client. OpenJDK will make Apple’s Java technology available to open source developers so they can access and contribute to the effort.

“We are excited to welcome Apple as a significant contributor in the growing OpenJDK community,” said Hasan Rizvi, Oracle’s senior vice president of Development. “The availability of Java on Mac OS X plays a key role in the cross-platform promise of the Java platform. The Java developer community can rest assured that the leading edge Java environment will continue to be available on Mac OS X in the future. Combined with last month’s announcement of IBM joining the OpenJDK, the project now has the backing of three of the biggest names in software.”

“We’re delighted to be working with Oracle to insure that there continues to be a great version of Java on the Mac,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “The best way for our users to always have the most up to date and secure version of Java will be to get it directly from Oracle.”

Apple also confirmed that Java SE 6 will continue to be available from Apple for Mac OS X Snow Leopard® and the upcoming release of Mac OS X Lion. Java SE 7 and future versions of Java for Mac OS X will be available from Oracle.

Regards,
Adrian