What about the merits of a Java-specialized daughter-card for the Xserve? Again, barring major technical hurdles, it would seem that this is the type of thing that people might go for on their servers if they run a lot of Java ASP-model type stuff. And at the price point of servers, the additional cost of a co-proc that is optional would be relatively easy to justify.
As for Java, I think that the biggest weekness right now may be in JNI. There are some major issues with it. We invested a lot of developer time in migrating software over to use JNI, and wound up having to scrap it and revert back to the old non-JNI method we were using due to major bugs. It would cause the whole app to crash every time.
I sure wish that there was a foolproof way of forcing garbage collection at certain times. It would make for some easy workarounds at times.
Also, Java runs best by far on Windows at the moment. Sun puts so much development effort into its Windows JVM. The performance on Solaris is admittedly respectable given the hardware. Now, the Linux performance on the other hand, especially for graphic visualization... Arghhh!!!
Please Apple, get Java 1.4 out the door soon. Until then, our software can't run on the Mac, and I'll keep having to run it using X11 from a Linux box onto my iBook.
Java is a platform more than anything else. It's not Apple's platform. It's not Microsoft's platform. It's Sun's proprietary platform. Apple is not, nor should they be, in the business of propping up another company's platform. They have their own bag of tricks to worry about.
Sure, it is important for MacOS to have a good JVM, but outside of LimeWire, I cannot name one single Java application that I'd even consider using. Applets are just shortcuts to writing native plug-ins. Java is fine for server apps and the like, but when it comes to writing a UI, you're just going to have to get your hands dirty and learn some platform-specific code. Done properly, it can be abstracted to the point that most of your real work is done in common code.
If you want to marry your development to the Java platform, then more power to you, but you do have to go into it knowing that you are taking a major shortcut and as such it won't run as well as the "real thing". Plus, you're forever encumbered by the mess of licensing quibbles and power-struggles between Sun and the rest of the world. (example, Sun's refusal to license Java3D for the Mac....) Meanwhile, the rest of the world will be moving forward with the good old C-APIs linked to the programming language of choice.
Comments
As for Java, I think that the biggest weekness right now may be in JNI. There are some major issues with it. We invested a lot of developer time in migrating software over to use JNI, and wound up having to scrap it and revert back to the old non-JNI method we were using due to major bugs. It would cause the whole app to crash every time.
I sure wish that there was a foolproof way of forcing garbage collection at certain times. It would make for some easy workarounds at times.
Also, Java runs best by far on Windows at the moment. Sun puts so much development effort into its Windows JVM. The performance on Solaris is admittedly respectable given the hardware. Now, the Linux performance on the other hand, especially for graphic visualization... Arghhh!!!
Please Apple, get Java 1.4 out the door soon. Until then, our software can't run on the Mac, and I'll keep having to run it using X11 from a Linux box onto my iBook.
Sorry for the venting. Back on topic now.
Sure, it is important for MacOS to have a good JVM, but outside of LimeWire, I cannot name one single Java application that I'd even consider using. Applets are just shortcuts to writing native plug-ins. Java is fine for server apps and the like, but when it comes to writing a UI, you're just going to have to get your hands dirty and learn some platform-specific code. Done properly, it can be abstracted to the point that most of your real work is done in common code.
If you want to marry your development to the Java platform, then more power to you, but you do have to go into it knowing that you are taking a major shortcut and as such it won't run as well as the "real thing". Plus, you're forever encumbered by the mess of licensing quibbles and power-struggles between Sun and the rest of the world. (example, Sun's refusal to license Java3D for the Mac....) Meanwhile, the rest of the world will be moving forward with the good old C-APIs linked to the programming language of choice.