The only recent apps which require you to install Apple’s old Java support are most of those in Adobe Creative Studio 6 and earlier, which will not run without it. By default, Safari and other browsers will not run Java automatically, but at least ask you if you want to enable it for that site, when it’s installed.Īpple used, a long time ago, to bundle Java with OS X, and still provides a separate installer if you need to support Java 6. Safari’s controls over Java are quite separate, and part of the Websites section of its Preferences. Java is normally installed as an add-in to macOS, and supports the running of Java apps via web pages and as standalone apps on your Mac. It has also been built into other apps as a scripting language: again, their support is built-in, and there are no separate components to install or keep updated. Unless you have good reasons to disable it, it is best enabled, as many websites stop working if your browser doesn’t handle its scripts. In Safari, you control JavaScript in the Security section of its Preferences dialog. Think of it as a type of AppleScript which runs in web pages.
It’s most unfortunate that these two languages have such similar names, as it makes them so easy to confuse.Īlthough influenced by Java, JavaScript is an event-driven language used extensively on webpages, which is normally built into your browser and other apps which support it. Java and JavaScript are completely different
