From the announcement of the new release of Chemical Markup Language, and other discussions on the list it seems that Java is becoming an integral part of the chemical web. However, it appears that moving down this road could exclude many people from our sites.
The issue is one of corporate firewalls. Many companies are not willing to let in 'live' code to their networks in order to ensure the security of their systems. For example, in a recent discussion on the CHMINF-L discussion group about CAS/STN Easy Edition, Rick Williams of Pfizer said: "On the more important (from our point of view) issue, about which you had no comment, what's with the Java routine? We simply cannot, at this time, offer to our clients any resource which is manipulated by or depends on programmatic intervention from outside the corporate firewall." I'm sure that Pfizer isn't the only company with this policy. There are many advantages to the Java approach, but companies seem suspicious of it even with reassurances about the built-in safety mechanisms in Java. Is there a danger we could be moving towards a two-tier chemical web? -------------------------- Paul Deards Internet Publisher Chemistry and Industry 0171-2353681 x233 pauld@chemind.demon.co.uk http://ci.mond.org/ -------------------------- Advertising with C&I electronic publications is a cost-effective way of reaching a target audience of scientists. For more details, contact us at advertising@chemind.demon.co.uk -------------------------- ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver@ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa@ic.ac.uk)
"On the more important (from our point of view) issue, about which you had no comment, what's with the Java routine? We simply cannot, at this time, offer to our clients any resource which is manipulated by or depends on programmatic intervention from outside the corporate firewall."
The answer is that Java is implemented inside the intranet! The organisation which has been set up to facillitate this is the OMF; http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/omf/ In due course, as technologies such as CORBA become implemented, a combination of workstation mounted, intranet mounted and internet mounted Java resources will solve problems such as you allude to above. Dr Henry Rzepa, Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, LONDON SW7 2AY; rzepa@ic.ac.uk; Tel (44) 171 594 5774; Fax: (44) 171 594 5804. URL: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/ ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver@ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa@ic.ac.uk)
On Wed, 8 Jan 1997, Rzepa, Henry wrote:
"On the more important (from our point of view) issue, about which you had no comment, what's with the Java routine? We simply cannot, at this time, offer to our clients any resource which is manipulated by or depends on programmatic intervention from outside the corporate firewall."
The answer is that Java is implemented inside the intranet! The organisation which has been set up to facillitate this is the OMF;
(A)) This is an important option, and there are others: (B) Use java as a traditional programming language with builtin graphics (e.g. like tcl/tk) and compile and run your own programs as standalone applications. You then have the same security problems as a *.c file, or a *.exe. (i.e. if you know its history, or you wrote it, no problem). (C) Get your Java applet from someone you trust. Java/SUN is developing this approach ('trusted applets'). I would expect that major public players in this field would investigate this approach. The applets can also be encrypted so that they are tamper-proof. P.
Peter Murray-Rust (PeterMR, ) Director, Virtual School of Molecular Sciences Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nottingham University, NG7 2RD, UK; Tel 44-115-9515100 Fax 5110 http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/vsms/; OMF: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/omf/ ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver@ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa@ic.ac.uk)
participants (3)
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Paul Deards
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peter murray rust
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Rzepa, Henry