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Re: ObjC vs Java -- NEWBIE

> Of course, you say 'a Mac and M$ platform', so maybe cross-platform is
> key to you... in which case I'd have to ask, why would you even ask the
> question, given that you're already an experienced Java developer ?

A long long time ago in a galaxy... well, okay, it was this one...

Anyhow, a buddy of mine once told me (when I asked some inane question like, "A Mac can do that?"), "It's all 0's and 1's." Talkin' bout hitting the nail on the head. So when it comes to talking SOAP or parsing XML etc, the email quoted above was absolutely right; it doesn't much matter what you're using.

Now if you'll allow me to muddy the waters even further, these questions might better be asked not only of the Cocoa and Java lists, but also the REALbasic mailing list (http://support.realsoftware.com/listmanager -- NOT an Apple list, of course). If you've got VB 6 and .NET Windows.Forms experience, REALbasic comes awfully close to doing the same thing. And compiling for Windows and -- if you believe all the hype -- Linux soon as well, heck, even Mac OS 9-, is a checkbox away.

RAELbasic is not nearly as low-level as C nor as mature when it comes to object oriented programming as Java, but is a great way to get an undecompilable (new word alert!) app bundle that'll go xplat fairly quickly. You can even put in conditional code to reference dll's you've created in VB6 or COM-wrapped .NET assemblies.

It's all situational, and, as another fellow from my college years told me, "They're all dialects of the same language" (specifically comparing Fortran to Pascal at the time). What lang you should learn first depends on what you want to get done and how you forsee reusing the code.

And if you'll allow me to characterize what you're doing from the open-ended nature of the questions (basically looking for a good, mature, stable language to *quickly* create and deploy *GUI-heavy* apps on Mac OS that look and behave like native apps), you might throw down the $99 for REALbasic and take a look. You can also demo it for 20 days or so just by downloading. I made a quick trialware app in Java that I released Mac-first, but in retrospect wonder if I wouldn't've saved a ton of GUI creation time (and you have a number of GUI-specific questions) by using REALbasic instead. (Downside: With RB, you pretty much *have* to use their IDE, and it's no VB6 or VS.NET, and some of it is still a touch rough around the edges (eg, WebKit usage))

Best of luck,

Ruffin Bailey

>> The app is a simple compiled app that accesses web services from a
>> .NET server, modifies XML files locally, and uploads the XML blobs. I
>> am most familiar with Java, VB, VB.NET, and C#. The most natural type
>> of project for me would be a Cocoa-Java app. Unfortunately, I'm
>> worried about the deployability and speed of the app.
>>
>> 1. If I code my Cocoa app using Java, how much slower than Objective-C
>> will Java be?
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