If you’re a programmer or developer wanting more info on the role of Java in Mac OS X and advice on using Mac OS X as a Java development platform, a new book, “Early Adopter Mac OS X Java,” from Wrox Publishers might be worth a look.
Mac OS X is, of course, a Unix-based operating system that includes a Java 2 Standard Edition implementation, including a HotSpot client virtual machine, tied right into the operating system. Apple has made Java a first-class citizen of Mac OS X. This US$34.95 book (ISBN 186100611X) is designed to show Java developers how they can take advantage of the power they’ve been given.
“Early Adopter Mac OS X Java” includes sections on: writing portable Java code; taking advantage of Mac OS X’s features in pure Java applications; developing enterprise applications on Mac OS X; deploying Java code as a Mac OS X application; accessing OS-specific functions through MRJ and JDirect; and using Java to program Cocoa.
Written by Eric Albert, James Hart, John Hopkins, Daniel Steinberg, and Murray Todd Williams, the book is targeted to a wide variety of users. Mac users may feel slightly more at home with some aspects of its interface, but anybody coming from a Unix background will also find familiar features that Mac users will find totally alien, according to the folks at Wrox. Therefore, this book doesn’t make any assumptions about whether you come from a Mac or non-Mac background. What it does assume, however, is that you’re “reasonably experienced” with Java or at least learning it.
Wrox also has books on other subjects of interest to Mac developers, including tomes on WebObjects.