Some comments on these bits: > I have been asked questions > such as "what is the lifetime of a WEO", and what happens > in eg 10 years time when the Java virtual engine is no longer > installed/supported on the majority of Web browsers.
Jmol is opensource! There is absolutely no reason not to copy the Java code into any other more trendy language. I really don't care about a possible end of Java (see also below), because the code can be ported to any language. Unlike Chime! That has proprietary code, and could never be adapted to more suitable languages, platforms, whatever. > Java is also a single-vendor product (Sun!), > although Egon tells us it might become opensource, unlike Chime. Yes, Java7 (developers release) is GPL and called OpenJDK. There are some emcumbered bits in it, but the first releases of IcedTea replaces those by Classpath code [1,2]. That is, five day ago a 100% Java platform has been released! With that freely distributable (as in beer, and as in freedom), I think Java might stay around a bit longer than 10 years. The first Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora packages have been released, for those who want to have a go at it [3,4]. > But, repositioning Jmol into a new programming language > is going to be an interesting task. I wonder if we will be able > to rely on something like f2c for converting eg Fortran to C? Yeah, that would likely no be easy, but possible. Moreover, with the current functionality I am sure it will happen. Egon 1.http://www.javalobby.org/java/forums/t97093.html 2.http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.java.openjdk.distro-packaging.devel/5 3.http://gnu.wildebeest.org/diary-man-di/?p=37 4.http://fitzsim.org/blog/?p=16 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ Jmol-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/jmol-users
