On Thursday 03 January 2008, Les Mikesell wrote:
I'd just like some truth-in-advertising here. Don't call it
java until
it is - and realize it is just as damaging as if would be if someone
replaced your /bin/sh with an incompatible replacement.
LOL.
Having a moderately complex (2.9MB .war) java applet/servlet combo in
production here, I laugh at this. Sun's Java isn't even compatible with
itself! (JRE 1.4 -> 1.5 broke our app; 1.5->1.6 broke our app; etc)
So, Les, just what is 'java'? Which version?
Hrmph, I've seen numerous Java apps and applets that work fine on a 1.4 JRE (I
even have one app, quite old, that requires a 1.3 JRE) and will not even
start with 1.5, much less 1.6 or 1.7.
So, again, what IS 'Java' and how does one measure compatibility?
Oh, and just because you have a 'compatible' /bin/sh doesn't mean your shell
scripts will run. Shell script compatibility depends upon having the same
set of shell library commands available; this can vary even between one
Fedora 8 install and another one. So /bin/sh compatibility is a strawman, as
100% shell script compatibility doesn't exist (just try to run an old .shar
that needs uudecode on a modern Linux).
--
Lamar Owen
Chief Information Officer
Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute
1 PARI Drive
Rosman, NC 28772
(828)862-5554
www.pari.edu