MRJ Adapter 1.0.9 review
DownloadThe term "MRJ", or Macintosh Runtime for Java, used to be the name of Apple's Java virtual machine in the days of classic Mac OS.
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The term "MRJ", or Macintosh Runtime for Java, used to be the name of Apple's Java virtual machine in the days of classic Mac OS. When Mac OS X came along, the use of the name faded slowly until Apple's Java 1.4 virtual machine came to life, which completely dropped any reference to the name. Maybe I should drop the reference as well for MRJ Adapter, but until I do, let's make it clear that MRJ Adapter is a library that allows your code to work with any and all versions of Apple's Java virtual machine, from the oldest to the latest and greatest.
MRJ Adapter is partially a wrapper around some APIs provided by Apple and which are built into their various virtual machines. However, they have changed over time and some APIs were not always available, so MRJ Adapter provides a consistent API for the developer wanting to target the Mac.
MRJ Adapter is an easier path for developers because it is easier to learn, leveraging concepts they already know, such as action listeners to handle menu items. It also shields the developer from the problems associated with compiling their code on other platforms when the APIs they need only exist on the Mac.
MRJ Adapter incorporates a wealth of knowledge and little-known tricks about Apple's virtual machines that no developer should be expected to know off-hand, especially if they come from other platforms. Things like how to bring up a folder chooser dialog, or how to open a document with the application that created it are addressed by MRJ Adapter.
MRJ Adapter implements many things the Apple APIs don't address, such as automatic handling of all-inclusive menu bars, assignment of a menu bar to be shown when no frame is visible, and more.
I wrote this library because I needed this functionality in my work and I found that it would be of interest to many other developers.
Here are some key features of "MRJ Adapter":
Unified APIs & Functionality
Get and set file types and creator codes.
Find special folders defined by the OS.
Find applications by creator code.
Find resource files in application bundles.
Open URLs in the user's favorite browser.
Handle the OS-provided About, Preferences and Quit menu items.
Enable and disable the Preferences menu item.
Handle the Apple events Open Application, Reopen Application, Quit Application, Open Document, and Print Document.
MRJ Adapter Specific Additions
Handle the OS-provided Preferences menu item on MRJ 3.0 and MRJ 3.1 (Java 1.3.1 on Mac OS X). This was only introduced by Apple in MRJ 3.2.
Handle the Reopen Application event on MRJ 2.x and 3.x. This was only introduced by Apple in MRJ 4.3.
Enable and disable the Preferences menu item in VMs prior to Java 1.4.1. This was missing before 1.4.1.
Find applications in MRJ 3.0 and up (Java 1.3.1 and up). This was dropped by Apple starting with MRJ 3.0.
Open URLs in the user's favorite browser in VMs prior to MRJ 2.2. This was missing before MRJ 2.2.
Find out whether the About, Preferences and Quit menu items are provided by the OS or not on the current platform. This was different on classic Mac OS than it is on Mac OS X, is never the case on other platforms, and there is no method in the Apple APIs to discover this.
Multiple listeners for all Mac-specific events. The Apple APIs lacked this before MRJ 4.1 (Java 1.4.1).
Handling of all Mac-specific events via familiar MenuItems, JMenuItems, ActionEvents, ActionListeners and Actions. The Apple APIs use Mac-specific events and listeners.
Find out whether Swing is currently using the screen menu bar or not. This can be true or false depending on the system properties set, and on the Swing L&F currently in use, and there is no method in the Apple classes to discover this.
Set a menu bar to be shown when no frame is visible. This is a normal state for a Mac application and Java has no built-in facility to do this, nor does Apple provide any API for it.
Get the name of the startup disk. This has always been missing from the Apple APIs.
Bring up a dialog for choosing a folder. There was a way to do this in the Apple VMs prior to 1.4.1, but it was undocumented.
Bring up a dialog for choosing an application on disk. A convenience that makes use of the working FilenameFilter on the Mac, and which also makes sure bundles are not traversable.
Launch applications as well as open documents, either by the application that created them or by one of your choice, all in a way that isolates your code from highly platform dependant mechanisms. This is missing in the Apple APIs.
Retrieve file types and creator codes from Mac bundles stored on other platforms.
Find out if the underlying platform implements Apple's JDirect technology, and if so, which version of it.
Create menu bars that are automatically all-inclusive on Mac OS while remaining distinct to each frame on other platforms. There is nothing built into Java to do this, and Apple never provided a solution for it.
Use actions with JMenuItems in Swing 1.1 as well as AWT MenuItems. This functionality was introduced by Sun in Swing in Java 1.2, and AWT doesn't support actions.
Have menus automatically disable themselves when all their items become disabled. Conversely, have menus enable themselves when any item becomes enabled.
Show a standard About box similar to the one provided by the Cocoa framework on Mac OS X, while being cross-platform.
Open the resource fork of a file.
Other Features
Supports Java 1.1 and up on all platforms, starting with MRJ 1.5 (Java 1.1) on classic Mac OS all the way through JDK 1.4.2 on Mac OS X.
Supports both AWT and Swing.
Easy compilation on other platforms. If you link with MRJAdapter.jar, there is no need for stubs of any kind. It will just work, on any platform.
Stubs provided for compilation of MRJ Adapter on platforms other than the Mac. This is just for compiling, and the stubs don't need to be included in the resulting JAR file.
What's New:
Changed from the LGPL license to the Artistic License.
Removed caching of the result of MRJAdapter.isSwingUsingScreenMenuBar() so that it works even with runtime changes of the L&F.
Added explicit support for the excellent Quaqua.
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