Mac OS X in a Nutshell

Running Standalone Applications

While Java programs are meant to be run on any operating system for which a Java VM exists, developers can make them easier to run on Mac OS X in particular by packaging them up as applications. A standalone Java application looks and works in the Finder like any other kind of Mac OS X application (as described in Section 2.4.2.1), particularly in that you can double-click it to launch it. (This may not seem like much, but it is considerably more convenient than fussing with class paths and Jar files, which running Java programs from the command line can entail.)

Tip

Mac OS X ships with a pair of this sort of standalone Java application: Applet Launcher, and MRJAppBuilder (on the Developer Tools suite). As it happens, they’re themselves utilities for Java users and developers, and their use is covered later in this chapter.