Java Widows vs. Linux

[Condon Thomas A KPWA]

Collins,

> It's a big joke that Java has been touted as write once, run 
> anywhere. Does anyone know anything about the flavor of Java 
> that is used with Windows and IE? My laptop uses Blackdown 
> with Firefox.

No, if you use real Java it works just fine.  Problem is, most developers
use something called J++ (they lost the lawsuit and can't call it Java++
anymore), which doesn't produce java code.  It produces Microsoft specific
code that really only runs on the M$ JVM.

> The symptoms are:
> 1. The initial login and password screens work ok.
> 2. The screen with selection buttons works fine.
> 3. The next lower level screens have a number of pull-down 
> data selection boxes (the ones with arrows at the right end) 
> to setup search parameters. All of them look squirrely (not 
> enough room for the contents), and many of them do not work 
> (nothing pulls down).
> 
> I wonder if it would help to convert to the Sun version of Java?

Yes.  Uninstall anything that says Java on the XP partition and install the
JDK and JVM from Sun.  Do the same on the Linux side.  Then they will work
the same.  You may begin finding errors in the Java code, since not all of
the instructions are real java if it was developed on J++.

> Any Java heavies lurking out there?

OK, I've added a few pounds with the years, but I'm really not more than 15
lbs overweight!  Not an expert, just experienced (which means I've made some
mistakes).

> Anyone familiar with running Java on "the Mark of the Beast"?

I wrote a Java app for a rack of WinNT servers that was controlled (one
instance of the app one each server) from another Java app on a Linux laptop
(a 6" shell was going to be set off next to the rack and we wanted some
space between us and it while running the app).  I used Sun's JDK and JVM
and had no problems.  When they changed the server to Win2K it still worked
fine with no changes.  When they wanted to move the controller to one of the
servers (we were done setting off shells by then) it still worked once the
sockets were re-set for the new machine.  It is portable if you code it
right!

BTW, I had difficulty getting the fonts working quite the way I wanted, too.
But I didn't have unlimited time to investigate the problem.  So I hard
coded the size, instead of taking it from the font properties.  Apparently
when they do a substitution it doesn't calculate from the new font.  Oh, and
you'll love this, I tried the app on Red Hat (6 & 7), Suse (8), LFS &
Gentoo.  The Gentoo installation is the only one that *did* work right for
the font sizes and calculating button size from them.  Apparently it set up
the font paths and directories where the JDK expects to find them.

Hope this helps.  


In Harmony's Way and In A Chord,

Tom  ;-})

Thomas A. Condon
Proud Member of the Kitsap Chordsmen
Registered Linux User # 154358
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