Apple and Java

Sigh. Just when you think Apple might be getting their act together with regards to keeping Java on OS X up to date, you install the Snow Leopard upgrade to OS X and find yourself in the following situation:
Apple appear to have upgraded Java to 1.6.0_15, but removed the features from 1.6.0_10, namely the next generation plugin features for applets.

Finally, draggable applets on OS X

Apple have a pre-release Java update available on the ADC that updates Java to 1.60_13 on 64-bit platforms, so Mac users can finally take advantage of the new generation applet technology that's been available on Windows and Linux for months now.

I just installed it and tried it with the PDF Viewer applet that we upgraded to take advantage of Update 10 features, and it worked fine - I could drag the applet out and create a desktop shortcut with no problems.

You'll need OS 10.5.6, Leopard, and Safari 4.0 beta or the latest Firefox 3.1 if you want to try this out.

Debugging Applets on OS X

So, despite Apple's best efforts to hide the Java Preferences dialog in OS X (Applications/Utilities/Java/Java Preferences in case you're still looking) enough people must have found it by now for Apple to move to the next step: cripple the dialog itself.

After installing the latest Java Update from Apple I noticed a redesigned Java Preferences dialog, which was certainly more compact than the previous version, mainly because Apple have removed the Applet runtime parameters field. So, if you want to set up your applet for remote debugging, change the default heap size or pass any other runtime parameter you now have to go an edit a file manually, as described at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3210

This may be fine for developers, although I don't see how it is an improvement over editing via the dialog that was there before this update, but instructing non-technical users on how to set up debugging or heap parameters for applets just got more difficult for no good reason.

Parallels

I've been running XP inside OS X using Parallels for a couple of months now, and it's been such a great way to access certain Windows-only functionality (like VPN connections to work) that I am seriously considering getting a Mac for my next work computer.

Today I tried something different and installed Ubuntu 8.04 in Parallels, and that seems to work really well too. The Parallels / OS X integration is superb with Windows (the Coherence mode allows you to seamlessly mix applications from either OS), but that is not available for Ubuntu, which is a shame, but it still runs very well. As I'm using a MacBook without a dedicated graphics card I can't seem to turn on any eye-candy for Ubuntu, but I'll see if I can get around that.

What I would like to do is take the MacBook instead of my work laptop to JavaOne, so I have every OS possible and can show Altio running in Windows, OS X and Linux just by flipping into Parallels. However, time constraints and also paranoia about having US customs decide they want to 'examine' my laptop for a few days means I probably won't be able to.