Lamar Owen 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?
This isn't something you have to guess about. There is a compatibility
test.
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?
There are different versions with different tests. Sun is the authority
on this unless that have given that up recently. The fact that this
isn't clear shows just how badly the fake versions have damaged the name.
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).
That's a different - and solvable - issue. If a replacement shell did
something different internally, like removing quotes before expanding
wildcards you'd get the kind of damage that an incompatible java
interpreter can do.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@xxxxxxxxx
