Ian McFarland

Java on OS X is a first class citizen. You can integrate your app so well that users probably won't even know they're using a Java application. You can package your apps so they have one of those lovely 128x128 icons. Apps can be launched with a double-click, and can even be bound to particular file types so that your app gets launched when the documents are double-clicked. Swing apps also get the luscious Aqua user interface for free, and with a couple of lines of code you can also tell the runtime to let your app use the system menu bar, and even use the hardware acceleration, which you won't find on any other platform. Let's look at how apps are packaged on OS X. The Extremely Portable Approach First, the easiest way to package a Java application for OS X is as a JAR file. As long as your JAR file includes the standard Main-Class attribute (and is otherwise proper... (more)

Building Installers for OSX

Java development on OS X is similar to Java development on any platform, particularly any Unix platform. The differences are in how your code integrates with the platform. Java lacks a cohesive platform integration strategy, so running a Java application usually doesn't have the same feel as running a native one. In contrast, Java on OS X is a first-class citizen. You can integrate your app so well that users probably won't even know they're using a Java application. You can package your app so it has one of those lovely 128 x 128 icons and can be launched with a double-click; i... (more)