java with leopard

there seem to be a fair number of java developers using os x these days, so i thought that i'd quickly write down some thoughts about java on the new os.

java 1.6

the obvious question is: does leopard comes with java 1.6? at the moment, java -version gives me

java version "1.5.0_13" Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_13-b05-237) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_13-119, mixed mode, sharing)

and ls /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/ gives me

1.3        1.4        1.4.2      1.5.0      Current 1.3.1      1.4.1      1.5        A          CurrentJDK

so, the obvious answer is no. honestly, this is a bit annoying. we know that there were some issues getting leopard out in time, but things seem to be dropping all over the place. it actually reminds me of vista a little bit... how sad. anyway, i still maintain hope that the missing pieces will show up in a software update pretty soon. otherwise...

so what's the upside? what's the reason that i'm not feeling dirty all over for owning a bit of AAPL (aside from the positive slope in that graph)?

spaces

while i spend my time at home with my macbook attached to a 20" cinema display, the rest of the time i'm confined to a mere 13". at any given time i'll have at least a browser, an ide, a text editor, a command prompt on my tiny little display and it gets a bit cluttered. until now i've been a cmd + tab, cmd + ` and cmd + her. (i really only ever used exposé to get to the desktop...) now, i think spaces may clean up my app switching. put the browser in the first space, the ide in the second and the command prompt in the third. now i can just ctrl + arrow between spaces and get right to where i want to be. since spaces aren't in a stack like the app switcher, i don't have to figure out how many cmd + tabs it'll take me to get to where i need to be.

obviously spaces wasn't just designed for developers, but i can't image who will get more use out of it. well, maybe people that want to hide the fact that they're playing launchball all day from their bosses... that's a different story.

i want mustang damnit.