JDeveloper installer very small on Mac OS X

I have previously installed JDeveloper 11 on my MacBook Pro running Mac OS X Mountain Lion (10.8). Basically you download the generic installer from Oracle and run:

java -jar jdevstudio11124install.jar

Today I tried it again and the installer does start but with a very small screen only showing the exit button:

JDeveloper Installer with only Exit button

As it turns out this is caused by a recent install of JDeveloper 12c on the same machine. That had forced me to install JDK version 7 which is now the default java runtime environment on my machine. Apparently the JDeveloper version 11 installer doesn't like java version 7, at least on Mac OS X.

The solution is rather simple. Run the following commands in a terminal window to start the JDeveloper 11 installer:

wMac:~ wilfred$ /usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.6
/System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home
wMac:~ wilfred$ /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java -version
java version "1.6.0_51"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_51-b11-457-11M4509)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.51-b01-457, mixed mode)
wMac:~ wilfred$ /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java -jar jdevstudio11124install.jar 
Extracting scripts to /var/folders/vl/qsk0dkgn39b2_4sdngwvcf840000gn/T/
Executing MacOS-specific pre-installation scripts
You may be prompted to enter your Mac OS X password in order to create required directories and symbolic links
Extracting 0%....................................................................................................100%

Line 1 runs java_home to get you the full path to the java version 6 home directory. Line 3 uses this path and adds "/bin/java -version" to run java from that directory to check its exact version. Make sure it is in fact a 1.6.0_xx version. Then finally line 7 uses java from that directory to run the installer. This time it just starts fine:

JDeveloper 11 installer runs fine with JDK 6