[General] Re Batik/Rhino hangs on Chrome on a Mac

[Peter Fraser]

Hi Chris

it sounds a little like java hasn't been installed for Chrome and 
Firefox   -can you run stuff at sun.java.com ( or 
http://www.spatialmedia.com/misc/JSniff.htm )?

 >>
In Safari it took me seven
minutes for the clock to appear the first time and six minutes the second
time. That's better than half an hour.

<<

Interesting.

The half hour thing is something of a curiosity at the moment -and my 
working assumption is that this is all about whether Rhino optimization 
runs.
I was getting 8 minute-ish startup using a slightly older Batik version 
-but to run LK9.0 I needed to make some minor changes to the Batik-Rhino 
interface and use a newer Rhino (for the JS 1.5 stuff in LK9.0).

I know that batik/Rhino *can* start LK in comparable time to browsers 
(because Batik Squiggle does so). When I get some time to work on this 
some more, I'll put together a package with "an LK9.0 capable squiggle".



 >>
I like this investigation, and I'm learning things here. But I don't see the
point of running LK in an applet.
<<

The obvious win would be to provide a solution (albeit involving a 
plugin) for IE users. Current IE lacks SVG or Canvas, and the javascript 
is very slow (but the latter at least is going to change -MS are working 
on a "v8 like" javascript engine).

For me, the real appeal of IE is to act as a safety net. LK on browsers 
is a thrilling high-wire act -if you should trip (ie if the browser 
won't do the job) there is no net to catch you. With java, you at least 
have options (ie a safety net). You can "fix" the browser and still 
deploy (as per my earlier post on the general list today)

 >>
And "scratch is running" (at @200648) What is that? I've been looking at
Scratch, the Squeak app for kids today, so is that it? Or is it some Java
thing?
<<

No -it isn't *that* scratch (sadly) afaik. In fact, it was missing (and 
is optional), but Batik was choking on the lack of it, so rather than 
remove it from the script declarations I provided a 'hello i am running' 
implementation.




regards
Pete