Justin Zygmont wrote: > On Thu, 31 Aug 2006, Alan DuBoff wrote: > >> On Thursday 31 August 2006 12:48 pm, Dave Miner wrote: >>> You need a toolkit with which to implement a GUI. For better or worse, >>> Java represents the richest environment for doing so on Solaris, in my >>> opinion. It isn't a significant factor in the performance of the >>> install, though, beyond the overhead that we have in setting it up to >>> run on the current miniroot, which is completely a result of space >>> limitations on the first CD combined with the architecture of the >>> current install. >> >> Dave, >> >> I'd just like to comment that I agree for the most part. I find that a >> lot of >> folks tend to bash Java for performance, but it's gotten much better >> over the >> past few years. >> >> I don't know if it makes more sense over other similar technologies, >> python >> for instance (I look at python as being a similar technology;-), but >> it works >> and does a good job, IMO. It seems easier for us to extend what we have, >> since much of it does use Java today. >> >> I think Java is one of the richest programming environments available >> today, >> there doesn't seem a good reason that it shouldn't be used. > > > 400MB for the installer must be one of the tradeoffs? >
400 MB of what? But to go back to part of Alan's mail, the current install actually only uses Java for the GUI; everything else is in C or shell scripts. I'm doubtful that we'll continue to use the existing SDK for the GUI in implementing the new one, but there are many factors to be weighed in making that decision. I've no experience with Python, for example, but I'd be open to considering its use if it provides the capabilities we need. An interesting project for someone might be to prototype up a Python UI that generates Jumpstart profiles, for example. Dave
