Re: Distributing platform independant software (Was Is Linux Unix?)
David Baron wrote:
The other alternative is .... Java. Some might want to compile using gcc,
other might leave it as source and run throught the virutal machine. Of
course, if the program is in the form of a .jar, there is no choice but it
should run anywhere (and be set up so this does indeed work!).
I thought Java was supposed to be write-once-run-anywhere. Yet at my
university we have a product called Banner, distributed by SCT, running
on an Oracle database. The Java version ("Internet Native Banner") seems
to always be a constant issue, in that every time a new version of
Banner is put into place, the on-site programmers have to tweak and test
the Java client, and never get it working quite right everywhere (and
they always claim that SCT only supports INB on Internet Explorer). The
current version doesn't work on Safari or the Java Applet Runner on Mac
OS/X 10.3.4 (but it does on 10.2.8, as well as in Firefox and IE on
10.3.4; it also (currently) works fine on my Debian box using
appletviewer with Java from Blackdown).
I say all this to say that in my limited experience as a Java
"customer", Java isn't a write-once-run-anywhere tool after all. It's my
suspicion, however, that the problem is not really Java, but rather that
SCT has simply failed to code proper Java. Can any of you Java
programmers/experts address this? Is the problem with Java, or with
SCT's programming, or maybe the problem is with the way the local
programmers are setting up the http link(s) to the app, in which case,
it must be really hard to get it right, since this is always an issue
with each new web site redesign and/or Banner upgrade?
Thanks!
--
Kent
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