Sun Java Plugin For Browser Applets Or Gcjwebplugin?

[ben_dash]

Does anyone know the current status for Sun Java 1.6 for ARM Cortex-A8?

Do we already have Sun Java 1.6 for Applets, in any ARM distribution, in any web browser, or do we need to use gcjwebplugin with its lesser features?

I don't usually care about Java Applets, I know they're a dead tech, just curious if they are even an option.

 

[ben_dash]

I did some research and it looks like IcedTea is the way to go:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IcedTea

Here's the beagleboard info, but it doesn't mention Applets specifically:

http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard#Java

 

[Dead1nside]

IcedTea actually works pretty well on x86 Linux. Recently I've noticed the compatibility go way up. It also seems to start faster and use less resources that Sun Java. However it's borked in Firefox 3.6 at the moment. Have to wait for a new revision.

 

[chrysipp]

I don´t think that we will ever get Sun Java on the Pandora. But there is Cacao which runs well on the BeagleBoard and which is in the Angström repository. Cacao is compatible to Java 1.4 or 1.5 I think. The actual Java version is 1.6. So not everything will run.

 

[fettouhi]

Would be cool if we could get java on the pandora. Then I could do a little internet banking on the move maybe .

 

[ben_dash]

OpenJDK *is* Sun Java really right?

My worry is that some versions of Java don't support JavaScript/JavaApplet interaction, and that's something I need.

 

[chrysipp]

edit:
memo to myself: thinking before writing

 

[WizardStan]

My worry is that some versions of Java don't support JavaScript/JavaApplet interaction, and that's something I need.

JavaScript has nothing to do with Java.

JavaScript/JavaApplet interaction he said.
JavaScript in the browser talks to the Java applet and vice versa to do things to the html.

 

[ben_dash]

JavaScript/JavaApplet interaction he said.
JavaScript in the browser talks to the Java applet and vice versa to do things to the html.

Exactly.

I think I read somewhere that gcjwebplugin didn't allow JavaScript to call into the Applet's methods and/or vice versa.

With Sun Java, JavaScript can call methods in an Applet and an Applet can call JavaScript functions on the page.

 

[laurencevde]

IcedTea is practically full-featured, passes the java-6-testsuite, and does have java-plugin and javascript support. It uses OpenJDK, which is the opensourced version of sun's JDK. OpenJDK had a small amount of stuff that couldn't be open-sourced, and icedtea replaced those with opensource-stuff.
It normally uses the Hotspot-VM, which is sun's original VM. hotspot contains a considerable amount of assembly-code, but it nowadays also has a fully-c++ implementation (the zero-assembly version, that can be chosen when compiling hotspot). It can also use the CAIRO-VM.

Conclusion: icedtea is arm-compatible, and full-featured. Enjoy.

 

[ben_dash]

Conclusion: icedtea is arm-compatible, and full-featured. Enjoy.

Fantastic!

 

[dflemstr]

HotSpot on the Pandora? That would be awesome. Or disastrous, depending on how you look at it. It is blazingly fast and runs applications at 50% of C-speed on average, but it is the kind of JVM that eats memory (Java isn't memory hungry, it's just that some JVMs are).

JamVM would be a good alternative too. No HotSpot inlining, escape analysis and JITing, but it's still pretty fast and doesn't eat that much memory.

 

[fettouhi]

this would be great . Then I could do some internet banking while on the road.

 

[rabidpoobear]

So does this mean I can play Runescape on Pandora now?

 

[dflemstr]

So does this mean I can play Runescape on Pandora now?

Not in "hi-fi" mode or whatever; "hi-fi" will require the "lwjgl" library which isn't available for OpenGL ES. So you'll have to use "low-fi" or whatever it's called.

 

[rabidpoobear]

So does this mean I can play Runescape on Pandora now?

Not in "hi-fi" mode or whatever; "hi-fi" will require the "lwjgl" library which isn't available for OpenGL ES. So you'll have to use "low-fi" or whatever it's called.

Oh man I was actually just trying to troll a little. If it actually works I'll be really happy and play it for a few minutes!