Mac OS X is a UNIX-based operating system. It comes with development tools, and Java 2 standard edition implementation, including a HotSpot client virtual machine. Using Java as a development language on Mac OS X, you can develop programs which exploit the Cocoa programming interface, allowing you to build powerful native Mac OS X applications. You can use pure Java to develop cross-platform Java applications, which will have look like native applications on Mac OS X, Windows, and elsewhere. You can also use Java as a server-side development language, to build web applications hosted on the Apache Server which Mac OS X includes as standard. This book provides an introduction - a guide to where to start, what's possible, and where to go - to the various development possibilities presented by the inclusion of a fully functioning Java 2 platform on Apple's new UNIX based operating system, Mac OS X. It covers the possibilities for developing native applications using Cocoa, 100 per cent pure Java applications and applets with native Mac OS X look-and-feel, and also covers the possibilities offered by this Java platform for deploying J2EE and web applications developed in Java.