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OS X and My Java Nightmare
Submitted by thynctank on Tuesday, 17 July, 2007 - 04:36
(this is a repost from FreeMind forum on SourceForge... I really need help!)

I do hope the FreeMind patrons/artisans can help me! I've only recently had a machine with enough RAM/free cycles to consider really using Java apps seriously. I've taken a shine to Eclipse (natch!) FreeMind and more recently jEdit.

So today when I went to open a .mm file I created on Friday (it's Monday night now) I was distraught to find FreeMind wouldn't load. I figured I must've done something wrong. But as I clicked and clicked away at the dock icon which had worked fine for months (!) I realized I hadn't changed anything -- my guess is and automatic OS X update is the culprit, and I install those almost without a thought.

To back up my "something changed and I didn't do it" theory, I tried running jEdit. Same deal. Basically, the icons for these apps will bounce in the dock to indicate they are launching, and then simply stop, indicating a failed launch. BUT! No error code, no message of any kind.

To further confuse things, Eclipse is loading fine.

I've tried upgrading to the most recent Java (apparently SE 6? Or J2SE 1.5... I've always hated Java numbering schemes), playing with the various Java Preferences apps in OS X (I have 4 installed, one for each of the previously-mentioned versions and one for 1.4.2, one for 1.3.1...) and nothing. I've tried wiping out the /usr/bin/java dir but can not install older versions (I'm sure there are just other dirs I'm missing to allow for a clean install, but I worry about Apple Auto updater even after that...)

Has anyone else had this issue? I'm really pulling out my hair here!
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An Add'l Note
by thynctank on Tue, 17/07/2007 - 14:30
Just thougt I'd also mention this: I can run the .jar file for jEdit, but not the .app file.... curiouser and curiouser
 
I've never had this issue before.
by elberry on Tue, 17/07/2007 - 14:52
Try looking at the activity.log in ~/.jedit. If there are any errors they will be in there.

Other than that, could you provide us with a bit more info? Are you on an intel mac, what version of the OS do you have?

Did you build the .app yourself, or download it from the website? Also, what version of jEdit are you using (4.2 or 4.3preX)?

Learn from the past. Live in the present. Plan for the future.
 
Stub, Mac plugin?
by thynctank on Wed, 18/07/2007 - 01:19
Well, after discussing things at some length with elberry, we may have determined the cause of the issue: the presence (or lack thereof) of JavaApplicationStub within the app. jEdit 4.3pre does not include this.

After installing 4.3pre (I couldn't get it working before but now it's gold!) it will load fine from the .app and dock icon.

I note, however, that I do get an error message from the MacOS plugin: (which is not available from the server... only prepackaged?)

"Cannot start: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/apple/cocoa/application/NSMenu
Try updating to a newer version of the plugin."

What does this plugin even do?? I have removed it and seemingly had no repercussions but I'd like to be sure it's not vital... And advise it not be packaged with the app if it provides no actual benefit and only generates an error now.
 
Actually...
by elberry on Wed, 18/07/2007 - 06:35
After I got home I did some digging around. If you go into jEdit.app/Contents/MacOS you'll see "jedit" which is actually just a softlink to the Current JDK's JavaApplicationStub.

jedit -> /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Resources/MacOS/JavaApplicationStub

Go in to /Applications/jEdit.app/Contents/MacOS and type "ls -alh", you'll see it.

However, If I remember correctly, 4.2 final (which you said you were using before) came with it's own copy of the JavaApplicationStub. It would seem that there might be something not compatible with that old JavaApplicationStub. If you still want to use 4.2 final (because you said you were having issues with the Ruby Plugin in 4.3preX), you should be able to go into /Applications/[jedit 4.2 dir]/jEdit.app/Contents/MacOS, and replace the old JavaApplicationStub with a pointer to the new one.

Type:
mv JavaApplicationStub JavaApplicationStub.bak
ln -s /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Resources/MacOS/JavaApplicationStub JavaApplicationStub

Now you should be able to start up 4.2 final.

Hope this helps, and please anyone, correct me if I'm wrong, or if there's a better way.

Eric

Learn from the past. Live in the present. Plan for the future.
 
Excellent!
by thynctank on Thu, 19/07/2007 - 05:24
Cool! Thanks for figuring out where the current Stub file is located! I'm not a Java developer, let alone a Mac developer, so it would have been quite some time before I found that on my own! I'll know to look there in the future should I run into this problem again!

(funny enough I'm posting this from Safari on Windows)
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