[josm-dev] Jumbo Patch

[Brent Easton]

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 17/12/2007 at 9:34 AM Alexander Wright  wrote:

>On Monday 17 December 2007 02:09:37 Frederik Ramm wrote:
>> On the other hand, if we re-write anyway, then we might just ditch
>> Java altogether and do it in C++, or maybe simply use Merkaator as a
>> start (don't know how well it is designed on the inside but it is a
>> fast C++ app that compiles easily on Win, Mac and Linux which is
>> probably enough for us). If people are really concerned about memory
>> usage and such (as in "you can't keep a list of ways with every node
>> as even the empty list will consume 80 bytes") there's just no beating
>> good old C++.


Good forbid! The best thing about Java is that it came along at exactly the right time so that I didn't have to learn C++ :)


>As a user, I'd be less happy with this. Currently I have one download in a 
>shared directory that can run on Linux, Mac and Windows with no
>installation 
>bother. Upgrades involve copying a new jar over the old one. It doesn't
>get 
>much simpler.
>
>Actually, it could do. Java WebStart. You can then automatically push out 
>updates too.
>http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/

Webstart sounds great in theory, but after extensive experience with using on another project, I suggest avoiding it all costs. It just doesn't work on some systems, for no apparent reason and does not update correctly on other systems, again for no apparent reason. We had a lot of high-powered brains working on this and it was just impossible to have it working consistently on all systems. For the people it worked for, it was fine...

Rgds,
Brent.

____________________________________________________________
Brent Easton                       
Analyst/Programmer                               
University of Western Sydney                                   
Email: b.easton at uws.edu.au