diff --git a/scripts/SoarJavaDebugger.bat b/scripts/SoarJavaDebugger.bat
index d3e0451f1a..a181cc6e69 100644
--- a/scripts/SoarJavaDebugger.bat
+++ b/scripts/SoarJavaDebugger.bat
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-@echo off
-set SOAR_HOME=%~dp0
-set PATH=%SOAR_HOME%;%PATH%
-start javaw -Djava.library.path=%SOAR_HOME% -jar SoarJavaDebugger.jar %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 
+@echo off
+set SOAR_HOME=%~dp0
+set PATH=%SOAR_HOME%;%PATH%
+start javaw -Djava.library.path="%SOAR_HOME%" -jar "%SOAR_HOME%"\SoarJavaDebugger.jar %1 %2 %3 %4 %5
diff --git a/scripts/SoarJavaDebugger.sh b/scripts/SoarJavaDebugger.sh
index 71b41a693a..f6f34f6974 100755
--- a/scripts/SoarJavaDebugger.sh
+++ b/scripts/SoarJavaDebugger.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,20 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-export SOAR_HOME="$(pwd)"
-export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$SOAR_HOME"
-java -Djava.library.path="$SOAR_HOME" -jar "$SOAR_HOME/SoarJavaDebugger.jar" $1 $2 $3 $4 $5 &
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+set -o errexit
+set -o nounset
+set -o pipefail
+if [[ "${TRACE-0}" == "1" ]]; then
+    set -o xtrace
+fi
+
+THISDIR=$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )
+export SOAR_HOME="$THISDIR"
+export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="$SOAR_HOME"
+
+FLAG=""
+# SWT requirement: display must be created on main thread due to Cocoa restrictions
+if [[ $(uname) == 'Darwin' ]]; then
+  FLAG="-XstartOnFirstThread"
+fi
+
+java $FLAG -Djava.library.path="$SOAR_HOME" -jar "$SOAR_HOME/SoarJavaDebugger.jar" "$@" &
diff --git a/scripts/readme.md b/scripts/readme.md
index 632ce2c3bb..6ad149ebe3 100644
--- a/scripts/readme.md
+++ b/scripts/readme.md
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-Note that the scripts here are not the same ones that are distributed with the Soar release; those are in Release-Support/scripts.
+# Scripts
 
-TODO: it would be nice to use the same scripts for both. There's some logic that's different, though, so we can't just copy them over.
+Note that the scripts here are not the same ones that are distributed with the Soar release; those are in Release-Support/scripts. They are almost the same; the release ones add `/bin` to SOAR_HOME and run the soar setup script.