[1404] in java-interest
Re: questions after Java talk at Computer Literacy
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Noam Stopak)
Thu Aug 31 22:59:08 1995
From: Noam Stopak <noams@clark.net>
To: cmcmanis@scndprsn.Eng.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis)
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 1995 17:13:35 -0400 (EDT)
Cc: java-interest@java.Eng.Sun.COM, noams@clark.net
In-Reply-To: <9508312054.AA08978@pepper.Eng.Sun.COM> from "Chuck McManis" at Aug 31, 95 01:54:46 pm
<SNIP - excellent discussion of use of RSA authenticate applets>
> > In working on my own applet, I find a need to present the user with a
> > listing of a directory (but the FileDialog doesn't do the trick).
> > Is there a directory object somewhere that I'm missing? If not, is one
> > planned or do I need to write a native method to handle this?
>
> In beta it will be possible to construct a file accessor dialog box
> in an applet. However, be aware that applets are only allowed access
> to very few files.
Right. However, I believe that my users would be willing to place the
files the applet is to process in a directory which is in their
HOTJAVA_READ_PATH (and perhaps their WRITE_PATH as well).
> If you use a native method your applet will not be
> downloadable across the network.
Which is why I'd like a object supported by the runtime to do the dirty
work for me :-)
> > Finally, I see alot of talk about how Java produces portable code. This
> > is true provided there is a Java runtime available on the target system.
> > (This doesn't seem different from any other system that requires runtime
> > support.)
>
> Yes, and it is different. Unlike many other languages the way a piece of
> Java code executes is the _same_ for every runtime. That way an applet
> can load into any browser and do the same thing, regardless of the
> hardware platform the browser is running on. This is not the same as
> having for example a BASIC interpreter on every platform.
But we are still limited by the number of platforms that have runtimes.
The situation should improve with time, but is a fairly serious restriction
today.
> > As a developer, I am wondering how long it will be before "Industrial
> > Strength" Java runtimes are available on the wide variety of platforms
> > I'd like to target (i.e. SunOS (4.x in addition to Solaris), Dec Unix,
> > AIX, HPUX, MacOS, SCO, MS*DO[W]S, OS/2) - when will the market for Java
> > apps reach critical mass?
>
> Well OSF has announced they are doing several ports, and the java-porting
> alias has been very busy. I don't think this will take too long.
I hope you are right!
> > I know Netscape claims that they will have Java support in Q4 - does anyone
> > know if thats calendar or fiscal year? Will this be across all supported
> > platforms?
>
> Have you asked them?
Yes, all I got was "it will be available Q4, watch our Web page". Thats
why I asked here :-)
> > I have read OSF's announcement. It seems they are only committed to an
> > assessment of the technology. Does anyone have any information about firm
> > plans from vendors like DEC, IBM, SGI, HP or SCO?
>
> Again, these guys all have mail addresses and mailing lists of their own.
> I would suggest that you ask them yourselves. Everyone in the industry
> has expressed an interest in Java and HotJava technology and to the extent
> that their customers are asking for it, it will encourage them to support
> it in their base product. There are also many efforts underway to port it
> to various platforms and I suspect there might even be some business
> opportunities to provide support for Java on many niche platforms.
Right. I am hoping perhaps these vendors are reading here and may even
chose to share the info with what is the best audience I know of for any
Java announcement they want to share. I suppose I should lurk on the
porting list to see if I missed something there...
Thanks Chuck for the timely and thorough response!
Noam
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