Java 6 JDK For MBP 2012 ML?

Question

Hi. I want to pursue Java programming, but I need the JDK (java deveopment kit) for Java 6 for Mac... I went to Oracle's site and they have a ton of different downloads. There is an FAQ for mac users but they provide no information what so ever for downloading the correct JDK... Does anyone know where to get the java 6 JDK for mac ml?
Much less important, and just a side question, does anybody know if the LWJGL- lightweight java game library (for Java computer games) from lwjgl.org is a safe thing to download? I need it to fix an audio issue with a game.
Thanks.

Answer 1

Sounds like you have a lot to learn here and I'm probably not the right person to be giving you advice since I've never even been close to doing anything beyond using Java. I do know enough to be dangerous, but limited mostly to it's vulnerability these days and most of how it interfaces with OS X, but there's still a lot of holes in my knowledge base, especially these days.
My impression was that you planned on doing Java 6 development since you were asking about obtaining it's JDK. I couldn't help but wonder why you wanted to start there, but figured you had a reason. Java 6 is all but obsolete now and although there is still a bunch of code that requires it, I don't see any point in developing anything new there.
But to try and answer your last set of questions....
I also need to install the Java 7 Update 15 right? From the Oracle Website?
Yes, but if you are going to use it for development you will need to get the JDK from Oracle, not the JRE from java.com. Go to Java SE Downloads and under "Java Platform, Standard Edition" use the download button under "JDK".
Whenever I go to terminal it says 1.6.0_41, that is due to the fact that there is technically 'two' java's on a mac, correct?
The Terminal process "java" only knows about one set of Java code and for now that is Apple's because it knows where Apple stores Java SE 6. I am told that once you install JDK 7 then it comes with a new "java" process which only knows where Oracle stores Java SE 7, so it will start reporting only 1.7.0_xx.
It's not unusual for there to be more than one Java installed. For years there have always been two to three versions at the same time. You controlled which ones were enabled by using the Java Preferences app. It usually wasn't a problem to have more than one enabled as the software application would look for the one it needed and only use it. There is no more Java Preferences and the Java Control Panel only controls Java 7, so there seems to be no way to enable or disable Java 6 when it is installed. Apple says it's not required, so maybe it isn't important.
we have realized that there are two versions: the one that terminal tells you about, which I have. and the one that is either in 'system prefs' or the ultility 'java prefs', which I do not have.
The other (Oracle's Java 7) is only controlled using the Java Control Panel which can be accessed from System Preferences->Java and you apparently don't have it yet.
That means that I do not have the Java installed that the exploit has to do with, correct?
That's not at all important. Both have many vulnerabilities, just not exactly the same ones.
I suppose Oracle's version and Apple's version just use the same numbering which confuses me/other people.
Not sure how you came to that conclusion. I thought I had been pretty clear that Apple provided Java SE 6 1.6.0_41 and below and Oracle now provides OS X users with Java SE 7 1.7.0_xx and above.
Lastly, when you install the Oracle Java SE 7 JDK, your browser plug-in will be changed to Java 7. I've probably already said this, but unless you need to use Java with your browser you should only enable it when you must visit a trusted site and only while you are there. If, for any reason, you need to revert to the Java SE 6 Apple plug-in, then you will have to go through the procedures shown in the document Java for OS X 2013-001: How to re-enable the Apple-provided Java SE 6 web applet plug-in and Web Start functionality