Apple’s announcement that they would be ceasing future development of their version of Java for the Mac understandably worried Java developers.
Apple has posted developer documentation (http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#releasenotes/Java/JavaSnowLeopardUpdate3LeopardUpdate8RN/NewandNoteworthy/NewandNoteworthy.html) that said:
“As of the release of Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3, the Java runtime ported by Apple and that ships with Mac OS X is deprecated. Developers should not rely on the Apple-supplied Java runtime being present in future versions of Mac OS X.
“The Java runtime shipping in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, will continue to be supported and maintained through the standard support cycles of those products.”
Now “Mac Rumors” (http://www.macrumors.com) reports that one concerned Java developer from Portico Systems emailed Steve Jobs asking about Apple’s future plans for the Java programming language and platform on Mac OS X. Jobs’ reply was:
“Sun (now Oracle) supplies Java for all other platforms. They have their own release schedules, which are almost always different than ours, so the Java we ship is always a version behind. This may not be the best way to do it.”