Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Sat, 18 Feb 2006, David Moberg wrote:

> sindi keesan wrote:
> > I found http://www.blackdown.org and eventually the download links for
> > j2re and j2sdk at ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/java/JDK-1.4.2/i386/03 (there are
> > also 01 and 02 which are of earlier dates).  These are 13 and 33MB,
> > compressed packages.  Are these the plug-ins?
>
> The JRE is, but the SDK should be for developing Java applets.
> If you want Sun's Java Runtime Environment, try Sun's website:
> http://www.java.com/en/download/help/enable_browser.xml

I found a JRE 1.1.3 (1.3.1?) recommended by Opera that is 15MB, even worse 
than the above JDK.

> This is really more of an Opera/Java question than a BL one.
> All Unix-like operating systems should behave similarly for
> installation of browser plugins. Just make sure that your
> glibc is reasonably up-to-date and there should be no
> problems unless you somehow download a buggy JRE.

Is a JRE something like solibs?  Only what you need to run programs but 
not compile them?

> > I could do all my taxes with a solar calculator quicker than I could
> > download 13MB.
>
> Same here. This might explain why I was able to switch to BL so
> easily - I had no dependence on proprietary tax software.
> I tried some free, HTML-only web-based service that the IRS
> offered (a 3rd party actually hosted the service) several years
> ago, but gave up because it was more complex than manual tax
> filing.

The one I tried needs java - what did you try?
I might be able to do my taxes with sc, after a couple of hours to learn 
it and set up the calculations.  A friend still calculates his taxes on a 
Commodore with a spreadsheet.

> > 'The JDK for linux relies on motif for much of its user GUI' - where do I
> > get motif, and is that something that goes on top of icewm?
>
> Slackware has motif libraries. grep MANIFEST for motif or lesstif.
> Motif is a toolkit just like Xt or Gtk or Qt. It's a little smaller than
> either. The Ted word processor uses it, so if you have ever used
> Ted then you have used Motif. Motif is (at least, it used to be)
> not free, so someone made Lesstif, a compatible clone.

I tried Ted compiled statically with Motif, which was quite slow and not 
keyboard-friendly.

Opera 7 I don't think required motif for plugins, 8 does.  Odd.

> > Can java be added to links2 and used in text mode (without motif)?
>
> I don't think so. Does links2 even accept plugins?

It accepts viewers and players as Associations.  How do you define a 
plug-in?

If I ever need Java online I can walk an hour to and from the public 
library to use it there, faster.  Thought it may not be a good place to 
file taxes (in public).

Our local bbs (Cyberspace) is talking about adding java because a couple 
of people want to program with it (for OpenBSD).  I don't think OpenBSD is 
supported by Java.  One person persuaded the bbs to adopt OpenBSD for 
security reasons.

> David