< Prior rant snipped >
> So when you stack all of these little gotchas together, the naive and
> trusting user cds to the j3d demo application directory and executes java
on
> the classes there. What he gets (unknowingly, because he's never heard
> of -verbose) is the java.exe in WINNT\System32, which, evidently by the
> default installation, is married to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE /
> JavaSoft / Java Runtime Environment registry entry and thus uses the
runtime
> files from the JavaSoft\JRE hierarchy, which have none of the Java3D dlls
> nor jars. None of the examples run, but leave inscrutable error messages,
> and he quits.
I should have continued that the default installation of the plug-in points
to the Java3D-free JavaSoft runtime hierarchy (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE
/ JavaSoft / Java Plug-in / JavaHome = "C:\Program Files\JavaSoft\JRE\1.3"
on my machine, YMMV), so none of the applets in html pages, converted or
not, run on the resident browser as installed. If you Start -> Settings ->
Control Panel -> Java Plug-in -> Advanced -> Java Run Time Environment ->
scroll down to select one of the hierarchies that have the Java3D support
(again, "JDK 1.3.0 in C:\jdk1.3" on my machine), then the demo applets run
fine on the resident browsers from the converted html files. I haven't yet
run the tests to see how 'sticky' that setting is. For example, I don't
know whether the Plug-in's Java Run Time Environment gets reset to the
(3D-free) default on reboot. The selection certainly doesn't change the
registry.
This may explain the density of questions on the forums asking about applets
that run fine in appletviewer and the IDEs and not in the resident browsers.
By writing this, I'm certainly not recommending that anyone fix this problem
by editing the registry. To me, that's a criminal act, like posting
instructions on how to build bombs. DON'T EDIT YOUR REGISTRY. Things are
bad enough as they are.
By now, I've worked out some counter-kluges, but I'm not the expert, and I'd
rather not post them just yet. Kluges usually have unintended consequences,
and it may be that all of that fiddling (productive, useless, or harmful) is
responsible for the condition of my development projects, which have become
like creepy Victorian gardens, spider webs, crumbling masonry held together
by toxic vines, ... but I digress.
It would be best if Sun recommended the real fix. I suggest posting it here
and on the installation web pages. When they do, I'll do another reinstall
and get back to working on my 3D stuff. :-)
Cheers,
Fred Klingener
Brock Engineering
Roxbury CT
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