Jan, There is no need to "bring back Java". Using the Java Plugin of Sun or IBM or other vendors, Java applets can run without problems in the new versions of browsers. Moreover, the Java Plugin is a much better environment than, for example, the built-in Java of IE. Please see these examples: http://www.chemaxon.com/marvin/doc/index.html#examples (To try the system with the Java Plugin, select "Java Plugin and Swing" in the list box) Java Web Start also requires the Java Plugin. The advantage of applets over applications using Java Web Start is that you can communicate only with applets using JavaScript. Actually, I don't know how can the web page exchange information with an application using Java Web Start. If people are willing to download chemistry or other plugins, they should also be willing to download the Java plugin, which is about 5MB for Windows. I admit that I am a bit worried, because many people who are anxious about Java's future, scare off others. The best we can do for Java is that we stay realist and point also to the positive effects of the decision of Microsoft to leave out built-in Java from IE and XP. In am sure that much better Java applets will be developed now on, because we are not bound by the limits of Java 1.1. Actually, I see an opposite trend. Now that IE 5.5 SP2 and IE6 doesn't support some chemistry plugins, developers start to replace plugins with Java applets in their application. (After I finish this letter I will answer the letter of a guy who also wants to do that) Best regards, Ferenc Jan Labanowski wrote:
Glancing through the J2SDK/JRE 1_4_0 beta2 I was reading about the Java Web Start... With the havoc about JVMs in the browser, I wonder if this technology will bring back the Java to the client in a mainainable way.
http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/download-spec.html
Anyone has some opinion about it?
Should we as a community ask all chemistry vendors who send us stuff on CDs to include JRE with Web start (which is allowed without SUN's permission), so people on modems do not have to wait a few hours for JRE to be installed on their machines (at least it is available on Solaris, Linux, and Windoz on the Sun site).
While I am often cynical about "community working together", we are loosing the common GUI due to vendor wars, and it is a pity to see all these Java applets go to a sink and us going back to the era of binaries crafted for each minor release of every operating system on the planet Earth...
Jan K. Labanowski | phone: 614-292-9279, FAX: 614-292-7168 Ohio Supercomputer Center | Internet: jkl@osc.edu 1224 Kinnear Rd, | http://www.ccl.net/chemistry.html Columbus, OH 43212-1163 | http://www.osc.edu/
chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)
-- Dr. Ferenc Csizmadia Managing Director ChemAxon Ltd. Valyog u. 7, H-1032 Budapest, Hungary http://www.chemaxon.com T:+3620 9570988 Fax: +361 3875944 mailto:fcsiz@chemaxon.com chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)