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From: Algae Petrofsky <albatros>
Subject:  Re: Java port of Inform Interpreter
Message-ID: <ALBATROS.96Apr14235955@netcom15.netcom.com>
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References: <4kjd1f$jsb@sauron.multiverse.com> <4kh9va$1t9@newsbf02.news.aol.com> <ALBATROS.96Apr12210803@netcom12.netcom.com> <4kri06$e9u@wanda.phl.pond.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 06:59:55 GMT
Lines: 49


  From: russotto@wanda.phl.pond.com (Matthew T. Russotto)

  In article <ALBATROS.96Apr12210803@netcom12.netcom.com>,
  Alberto Petrofsky  <albatros> wrote:
  }
  }  From: russotto@ariel.ct.picker.com (Matthew Russotto)

  }  You'd be better off implementing some native methods to do it.
  }  I'm not sure how the plug-ins interface with Java, but my gut
  }  feeling is that it couldn't be as clean as native methods.

  }Either way you lose platform independence and the very nice lack of
  }any installation steps.

  Not if the native methods just happen to be a subset of the File and
  FileDialog classes, neither of which Netscape implements.

I'm afraid I must not know what you are talking about.  In what
language will these native methods be written, and how will they get
loaded into netscape?

I said you would lose platform independence because the java language
spec section 4.10.4 "Native methods" (http://java.sun.com/1.0alpha3/doc/
javaspec/javaspec_5.html) says: 

  Methods marked as native are implemented in a platform-dependent
  language, e.g., C, not Java.

Even though a language like C is in some ways a platform-independent
language, native methods must be presented to the class loader in
(unquestionably platform-dependent) machine code (i.e., after
compilation).  You'd have to provide a binary for every architecture
on which a java browser runs, wouldn't you?

I assumed the user would have to do some local installation of the
native methods, because the security FAQ (http://java.sun.com/sfaq) #1
says:

  ...Applets loaded over the net are also not allowed to load
  libraries, or to define native method calls. If an applet could
  define native method calls, that would give the applet direct access
  to the underlying computer.

I don't understand what the fact that "the native methods just happen
to be a subset of the File and FileDialog classes" buys you.  Could
you elaborate?

-al
