Re: java and fc16

[Daniel J Sebald]

On 11/26/2012 01:09 PM, Philip Nienhuis wrote:
> Daniel J Sebald wrote:
> > On 11/25/2012 06:12 PM, Philip Nienhuis wrote:
> > > Michael Godfrey wrote
> > > > On 11/25/12 11:36 PM, Philip Nienhuis wrote:
> > > > > I had the same error (jni.h not found) and solved it by, before
> > > > > running
> > > > > ./configure, setting JAVA_HOME to the place where the Java stuff
> > > > > lives.
> > > > I thought about that, but since in my system at least, there
> > > > seemed to be java stuff here there and everywhere with lots of
> > > > symlinks, I decided on a more specific patch. This was not meant to
> > > > be a real solution, just a test.
> > >
> > > Yeah, Java installation isn't quite standardized across distros and
> > > operating systems :-(
> >
> > I know little about Java so started reading, and just got to this topic.
> > There's was a push to standardized, then withdrawn. Now there is the
> > Oracle de facto standard.
>
> Ahum, "de facto standard".... you forget that each distro and OS
> develops its own "standard" to hide the Java stuff. Fedora and
> Mandriva/Mageia look quite similar, but on Ubuntu the Java JDK is in a
> different place; on Windows it is again somewhere else, Mac OSX largely
> amended the naming convention.

Guess I meant the byte code aspects of it.  But yes, I also read there 
is some platform specific stuff swept under the rug in all implementations.


> > Anyway, for those of us unfamiliar to Java, what does the Java package /
> > scripts do? I see the NEWS item about it. It seems like it creates
> > dialog boxes.
>
> Yes the ????dlg scripts were made by Martin Hepperle as they didn't
> exist (yet) in Octave, he needed them and they could very easily be made
> using a bit of Java code and some C++.
> Maybe these dialog functions have to be dropped once they are supported
> natively in Qt or OpenGL.
>
> The Java package/system allows you to invoke many many Java libs
> belonging to the Java system itself, and many many libs written by third
> parties; the latter may be OSS or proprietary. There are Java libraries
> and packages for about anything conceivable; not that they are all as good.
> Anyway Java doesn't have to be alone. Maybe one day there'll be a Python
> package allowing Octave to link to the many Python libs out there. Or a
> bridge to some other cross-platform language.

One at a time. :-)


> To me Java is just a means to be able to use pre-baked libraries made
> for specific tasks that would have taken me much more time would I have
> coded in e.g., C++. Nothing more, nothing less.
>
> I used it to develop the spreadsheet I/O routines, as there are many
> good quality Java solutions out there. In my case it was a simple choice
> between having to invest a lot of time in obtaining a rigid proficiency
> in C++, autotools and gdb, or just spending my limited time for Octave
> developing easily debugged Octave script language and leaving the lower
> level code to third parties.

I guess.  From what I've heard, gdb is pretty good for database work, so 
maybe it is worth knowing.


> > Does it create Java Byte Code? Or is it a means to interact with already
> > running Java Byte Code? Are there any security issues by supporting Java
> > in this way?
>
> The second, interacting with pre-compiled byte code.

OK, that coincides with your use above.


> Oh and I wouldn't run a web server written in Java.

Yeah, "byte code", if I understand correctly (i.e., some Java byte code 
translates directly to machine code in real time) sounds risky system wise.

Dan