Gavin,
Very nice reply. I kind of figured you'd be the one to reply on this
subject. Some comments on your comments.
>John writes:
>> With the recent article in NewsWire, Java/iX is at the top of
my mind. I
>> haven't been inclined to download the goods from Jazz because
I am not
>> doing any web stuff from the HP3000.
Gavin writes:
>Ah, but Java's not just for breakfast anymore.
>> So I have to ask, what can Java/iX do for me.
>It's a programming language. You write programs in it :-)
Duh!
>It has also got extensive libraries for things like networking
etc.,
>and Mike Yawn at HP has written a set of TurboImage classes
that let
>you access Image databases.
So does COBOL, RPG, TRANSACT, PASCAL, HPBB, C/iX, GCC, they're
called XL's and RL's.
>There are lots of reasons why Java is a better way to do
software
>development, and not all of them are the things that Sun touts.
>After two years of playing with it, I'm more convinced than
ever
>that I'd want to write everything in Java if I could.
>Unfortunately we're not yet to the point that you can just
throw
>out all your COBOL and replace it with Java. Also don't forget
>that learning to design and write Object Oriented systems is
not
>a skill that's trivial to acquire.
Being a MsVB, MsVC++ programmer in addition to C/iX, COBOL,
HPBB, etc.
that's not a problem.
>Here are some possible Java + 3000 scenarios:
< #1 and #2 snipped >
>3) A standalone Java application on the 3000.
> No web, no GUI, no Client/Server, no TCP/IP, etc. Just good
old
> fashioned HP3000 application programs that happen to be
written
> in Java rather than COBOL, C, or whatever.
> So far there have not been too many people actually doing
#3, though
> a lot of people are thinking about it. Currently most of
the
> effort is going into developing things like #1 and #2, since
they
> involve the web.
Yes, but why would I want to as opposed to GCC. I thought that
Java was similar to C++ but without the pointers. Is this correct?
>> Ok object orientation and reusability is good. But for many
>> of my users sitting at their HP700/98 terminal, how would a
Java/iX
>> application look and work for them.
>You can write a Java program just like you write a COBOL/iX or
a C/iX
>program today. Also just like C and COBOL, the Java language
does not
>have a built-in mechanism for screen handling on a character
mode
>terminal. You would have to either call V/Plus from Java
(which
>can be done though I don't know of anyone who has tried it yet
since
>you would have to write some C language stubs to call V/Plus
from
>Java code), or write/acquire a screen handling package of some
kind.
>This probably wouldn't be that hard to write, but it's not
something
>that exists today as far as I know.
>> Do Java/iX compile to a NMPRG or is this an interpreted
program.
>The normally interpreted universal Java code is automagically
translated
>into native PA-RISC (a'la NMPRG) at runtime, so it's somewhere
in
>between interpreted and NMPRG. In the future you should be
able to
>produce NMPRGs.
So if I write a program in Java/iX now and 200 people are
running it at the same time, that's 200 separate compiles and 200
separate program images, no code sharing. Right?
>There are still some performance and resource usage issues in
the
>current version, but things have been improving steadily over
time.
>HP is making large investments in Java on the HP-UX side of the
>company, and the 3000 is benefiting from this by leveraging and
>porting those efforts to MPE.
So maybe by Mpe/iX 6.0 Java will be better?
>> Also the way I remember it, Java was supposed to run in a
"sandbox"
>> so that it couldn't interfere with the executing client. Does
this
>> still apply?
>That only applies to Java "applets" that run in a Web Browser.
Java
>"Applications" (ordinary programs) have none of those
restrictions.
>G.
John Zoltak
North American Mfg Co
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