Re: netscape 2.0

["Andrew N. Nishigaya" <anishi@example.com>]

On Sun, 15 Oct 1995, Nicholas A. Millington wrote:

> Does anyone know what is to become of Sun's Hot Java product?  Was it created
> as simply a test bed for the Java language before Netscape 2.0 is released,
> or does it have some kind of future?  I think that there is a project
> underway to port HotJava to Linux, btw, so perhaps this will be available
> before the Netscape one...  How close is the relationship between Netscape
> and Sun in getting this language off the ground?  BTW, I have netscape 2.0b1
> running fine complete with DNS, though I am using Duke's T3 through an
> ethernet instead of a SLIP/PPP connection so perhaps that helps. :-)

HotJava is still alive and well.  In fact, Netscape only supports the 
newer beta release of Java and not the alpha API.  As there are a lot of 
applets already written for the alpha API, people need to use the HotJava 
browser.  After a while, I imagine that most will switch to netscape -- 
for for now, Netscape has pretty buggy java support.

An interesting note is that most of HotJava is written in Java.

The porting effort to move Java to Linux is underway, but they seem to be 
held up by the evolution of the pthreads library.  Java required 
multithreading to work properly, and Linux, apparently is not yet up to 
the task (was there a pun in there somewhere??...)

Actually, it looks like there are several ports under way.  I am still 
waiting to see who comes out with something usable first.

Some notes from the Net: (the URL for the java-linux porting project is: 
	http://java.blackdown.org/java-linux.html )

**********************************************************************

Current Porting Projects
Randy Chapman
Compiled on an ELF based Linux machine, using libc5.2.7, ld.so.1.7.8, gcc 
2.7.0, and the alpha3 source tree. This
port was based on Java's own Green Threads, and is capable of running 
stand-alone programs that use both
libnet and libawt. This port has managed to run hotjava, but is 
experiencing problems with varations on the libc
and ld.so versions. Please stay tuned to the java-linux mailing list for 
more information. Patches are available
from substance.blackdown.org in /pub/Java/linux. Note: It currently seems 
that the main problem that we are
seeing is the inability of the system libraries to always set the 
environmental variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH. The port
seems to always run if you have ELF X libraries, a net connection that 
can resolve java.sun.com, ld.so.1.7.8 and
the current working directory is such that libawt.so is in lib/libawt.so 
(ditto for libnet.so) 

Vladimir Vukicevic
Compiled on an ELF based Linux machine, using libc 5.2.3, ld.so 1.7.4, 
gcc 2.7.0, version 1_60b3 of the POSIX
threads library, and the alpha3 Java source tree. This port runs basic 
Java code, but is currently unable to run
anything using libnet or libawt, including the Hotjava browser. Patches 
are available from
substance.blackdown.org in /pub/Java/linux/old. 


Latest Information 

      Someone from MIT claims that someone else from MIT claimed that 
they had done a port to linux over
      the weekend. However, he who claims the other has claimed 
completion of the port to linux, as well as
      two other platforms, and of course the ability to port to SGI over 
a weekend, has claimed that the
      individual claiming to have done the work won't release the port 
until the next release of the pthreads
      library. Fact or Fiction, you decide. 
      The java-linux-announce mailing list has been created to report 
major announcenemtns concering the
      various ports. 
      Netscape has made an announcement concerning a Java enabled 
Netscape Navigator. 
      You may be interested in taking a look at the Linux/Viper kernel, 
located at
      ftp://dutiba.twi.tudelft.nl/pub/Linux/kernel. Linux/Viper is a 
multi-threaded linux kernel with an interface
      that follows both POSIX and non-POSIX features such as thread 
suspension. 

************************************************************************

by the way, anyone know anything about the linux/viper kernel?


-- nori

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