From ejfried#* at *#herzberg.ca.sandia.gov Tue Sep 5 16:28:25 1995 Received: from herzberg.ca.sandia.gov for ejfried "-at-" herzberg.ca.sandia.gov by www.ccl.net (8.6.10/950822.1) id QAA07526; Tue, 5 Sep 1995 16:21:59 -0400 Received: (from ejfried ^at^ localhost) by herzberg.ca.sandia.gov (8.6.11/8.6.10) id UAA08522 for chemistry ^at^ www.ccl.net; Tue, 5 Sep 1995 20:20:29 GMT From: "Ernest Friedman-Hill" Message-Id: <9509051320.ZM8520 /at\herzberg.ca.sandia.gov> Date: Tue, 5 Sep 1995 13:20:29 -0700 In-Reply-To: states -x- at -x- rucola.WUStL.EDU (David J. States) "CCL:Java chemistry applets?" (Sep 5, 10:01am) References: <9509051001.ZM29123 _-at-_)rucola.wustl.edu> X-Mailer: Z-Mail (3.1.0 22feb94 MediaMail) To: chemistry /at\www.ccl.net Subject: Re: CCL:Java chemistry applets? Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Mime-Version: 1.0 I've been looking at java for chemical (and other) applications. Both the potential and the limitations are surprising in the current incarnation. We're going to need some ports of the Solaris- and NT- specific implementations to other platforms before java/HotJava starts to take off; the insanely Sparc/Solaris-specific prototype was a big turn-off for me. I got the code, and the accompanying material in effect "dares you" to port it. Another big question was - why invent a new language for this purpose; why not use (for example) Safe-Tcl? My biggest problems with HotJava as it stands are that the java applets are 1) painfully unaware of the browser they're running in (for example, they cannot (without some MAJOR hacking) access the fields of and HTML form on the page in which they're embedded, and 2) the security aspects are pretty dismal, despite Sun's claims to the contrary. But the CONCEPT - active messages on the WWW - is and will be the Next Big Thing (TM), mark my words. On Sep 5, 10:01am, David J. States wrote: > Subject: CCL:Java chemistry applets? > Sun has been promoting a new programming language, java, as a tool > for creating portable applications on internet. Instead of constantly > going back to the host for additional information (a response to a mouse > click, for example), the applet executes on the local client. > > One of their demos is a page of molecules that can be viewed and rotated > in the web browser. See: > > http://java.sun.com/applets/applets/ChemicalModels/index.html > > but you need a "java capable" web browser such as hotjava, available > from http://java.sun.com. Netscape has announced support for java, > but I have not seen a date for when the product will be released. > > I was wondering, has anyone picked up on the Sun demo? Are people > designing chemistry and biochemistry specific java class libraries > and applets? Seems like it could be a powerful set of tools. > > David > > -- > David J. States > Institute for Biomedical Computing / Washington University in St. Louis > > -------This is added Automatically by the Software-------- > -- Original Sender Envelope Address: states ":at:" rucola.wustl.edu > -- Original Sender From: Address: states -x- at -x- rucola.WUStL.EDU > CHEMISTRY ^at^ www.ccl.net: Everybody | CHEMISTRY-REQUEST ^at^ www.ccl.net: Coordinator > MAILSERV-!at!-www.ccl.net: HELP CHEMISTRY or HELP SEARCH | Gopher: www.ccl.net 73 > Anon. ftp: www.ccl.net | CHEMISTRY-SEARCH "-at-" www.ccl.net -- archive search > Web: http://www.ccl.net/chemistry.html >-- End of excerpt from David J. States -- --------------------------------------------------------- Ernest Friedman-Hill Senior Member of Technical Staff Scientific Computing Department Sandia National Laboratories Org. 8117, MS 9214 PO Box 969 Livermore, CA 94550