Re: Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 5 Developer Preview (9M3092)

On Jul 30, 2009, at 1:14 AM, Erik Larsson wrote:

> Mike Swingler wrote:
>
> > Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 5 updates Java SE 6, Java SE 5.0 and  
> > J2SE 1.4 to deliver improved compatibility, security, and address a  
> > number of regressions. This preview requires Mac OS X 10.5.7 or  
> > later. Please read the Release Notes for more details, even if you  
> > can't install the build.
>
> I think a lot more people would be willing to "take the leap" to a  
> preview release if there was some kind of rollback/uninstall  
> mechanism that could restore the previous version of Java.
> This goes for the entire operating system of course. It's very easy  
> to install software, but very hard to remove it if it contains more  
> than a single component (like a .app). Even Windows has better  
> mechanisms for this.
>
> I'm very hesitant myself. Even though I'd love to help out in  
> finding bugs and improve the quality of Java on Mac OS X, I also  
> need to be able to do my work. You don't often have a dedicated  
> machine that you can use for testing new software updates from Apple  
> (at least not when you're a single developer, or work at a small  
> company).
>
> I think Apple should be concerned... what happened in Java Update 4  
> shows clearly what can happen when not enough people are willing to  
> test a new update.

We are concerned, and we are considering doing something a little  
different (which I discussed in <http://lists.apple.com/archives/java-dev/2009/Jul/msg00058.html 
>). Creating an exhaustive uninstaller may not be possible given the  
existing Installer.app, but I think the ability to lay down parallel  
JDK's and switch between them is something that the Java team could do  
to provide a high pay-off to the early adopters ability to test and  
regress bugs.

Regarding Update 5, we are only focused on addressing regressions, and  
are not going to re-plumb the JVM launch infrastructure (like we did  
in Update 4). Update 5 is a "combo" update, just like Update 4, so if  
you are really curious you can look at the installed file list from  
the "File" > "Show Files" option in Installer.app, and see the full  
list of what gets laid down that is "Java".

Also, to anyone who doesn't own an external drive: buy one - even if  
it's not for Java update testing - Time Machine has saved my personal  
data from hardware failure more than once. If you can spare a few 25GB  
partitions to try out Java or new versions of the OS, the Java team  
thanks you.

Please let us know if you find any regressions, since we would like to  
wrap this up ASAP,
Mike Swingler
Java Runtime Engineer
Apple Inc.
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