Java Update!

Stridder44

Stridder44

Universal Traveler
Wow...am I the first to post this? Anyway, check it in the S.U.

"What's new in this version:
provides improved behavior for applets in Safari and increased stability for desktop Java applications. Java 1.4.2 Update 2 also includes all the improvements from Java 1.4.2 Update 1. The system will be updated to Java 1.4.2 Update 2. If the system currently has Java 1.4.1, it will be removed. Any previous Java 1.4.2 installation will be completely replaced."
 
Interesting timing... I've been playing around with benchmarking a few Java apps today, it will be interesting to see if this is any faster.
 
It probably won't do. Apple doesn't ship a server VM which is a real shame as Apple's JVM is quite possibly the best JVM around in terms of integration with the host OS.
 
Well, this is quite a surprise.

The little application I was testing was running about 1.5 seconds on average with the previous Java. This update 2 reduced the run time down to 0.5 seconds. For comparison, the same app on a 2.4GHz P4 has been running 0.4 seconds, and 0.1 seconds on a 3.0GHz P4.

I need to try some other of my bigger, piggier Java applications to see if I see any noticable difference. I also have a less efficient version of this little tool I was testing with that might show a bigger percentage difference, too.
 
Are you benchmarking with the Server or Client VM?

Also it's a shame that Apple hasn't updated the Java developer libraries yet.

Here are some benchmarks that I normally run to gauge java performance on different platform. I normally deal with numerical apps, so these are representative of the performance I can expect to get from Java in these situations.

Check out Scimark at http://math.nist.gov/scimark2/run.html and Linpack at http://www.netlib.org/benchmark/linpackjava/. Java's performance on OS X is still pretty dismal. :(
 
That was with the client hotspot. I tried the server one and it basically had the same results. This is a tiny numeric processing app, so it won't really stress either of them.

I just tried my favorite IDE, IntelliJ IDEA, and it seemed faster, but it would take an a few hours of work with it to see if it really was. It's traditionally been slow enough to be unusable for me on this machine (1GHz iBook).
 
Yeah, they produce the same result because Apple hasn't implemented the Server VM. Passing the -server flag doesn't do anything but call the client VM still :). Cheeky monkeys...
 
Argh...

This has been my only real issue with moving to the Mac. Everything else has gone fairly well, even though everything else was slower... the Java stuff is the only thing that approaches show-stopper status for me.

Oh well...G5 powerbooks someday...
 
This Java update solved a problem I had with Safari and Java chat windows. Safari used to crash everytime I tried to use it. I had to use mozilla. I am pleased with the update so far.
 
Hey hey hey!

I got an email from SUN yesterday. J2SE 5.0 is out. How long, I wonder, will it be before Apple passes this on to us?

I'm a recent Java convert. I love it. There are some really cool things in 5.0 that would be helpful. Check it out... http://java.sun.com/j2se/ Notice the addition of 5.0 to 1.4.2

Jeff

PS - Notice that 5.0 is referred to by Sun as "Tiger". Hmmmmmm.
 
It will probably be in the next release of OS X. I used to like Java lots. But I find myself using it less and less each day.
 
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