Don Gilbert (gilbertd at bio.indiana.edu) wrote:
: one of the promises of java, which hasn't been fulfilled yet,
: is that applets, java classes, etc., would be fetched only once, or
: whenever updated.
: the current java browsers don't do this - they fetch a java
: applet each time you reconnect to a java html page. this is a big
: waste of everyone's time. having a local cache for applets is
: the only reasonable thing to do.
: there are beginnings of "standard" biology java classes out there. but
: i don't expect to see any more standardization with java than we have
: seen with c, c++, fortran, etc. there are many useful ways
: to skin cats; don't expect to see cat skinning be locked in a single
: mold.
: once the browser boys get their act together, expect to see
: applets that persist on your local computer. hopefully, they will do
: this in a way that individual class files can be cached and reused
: (thus a set of "standard" classes would speed up functions).
Don,
Not sure that I agree with this. In the past year or two, there has been a
renewed interest in writing new molecular biology software. Since Java
came along, even more people, many who otherwise wouldn't be enticed by
C++ programming, have started to experiment with Java programming and the
built-in functions that C++ doesn't have. Therefore I don't see Java as
just another language since the circumstances of its use is quite
different, and for me the analogy to Fortran, C++ etc. does not hold. I
can see very real advantages to a standardized set of classes, which could
be contributed to by everybody. At the very least, it would be useful to
construct a repository of Java classes specifically for Molecular Biology.
Until the 'persistant apps' becomes a reality, I still feel that a
'distribution' of mb-specific classes could be advantageous.
