basic java question - and flash player

[R Shapiro]

david writes:
 > message)  How do i enable the java interpreter? 

You need to install java, at least the jre (java runtime environment)
part.  Then you need to make symlink to the jre's javaplugin lib, more
or less like this:

cd /usr/lib/mozilla-${mozilla_version}/plugins
sudo ln -s ${jdk_home}/jre/plugin/ppc/mozilla/javaplugin_oji.so .

where mozilla_version is whatever version you have installed and
jdk_home is wherever your java lives (which depends on which java you
install).


 > [davidwri@RR davidwri]$ LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library 
 > /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so 
 > [/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so: ELF file data encoding not 
 > big-endian]

Are you sure you got the ppc version?



 > Also on a Java elated note, i would like to start learning java what would 
 > someone recommend? 

If you already have a programming background in some other language,
particularly in c or c++, I'd recommend "Java In A Nutshell".  It has
just enough tutorial info to get you going, and it's also probably the
best single-volume reference manual.

If you don't have any programming experience, you probably want to go
through some kind of programming fundamentals book first.  I don't
have any specific recommendations though.  Learning java as your first
language is actually better in some ways than starting with c or
especially c++, since those languages basically force bad habits on
you which you'll have to unlearn later (yes, I'm wearing my asbestos
suit).




 > Is it as "simple" as installing the IBM Java package (The 
 > IBM Developer Kit for Linux) from the "bonus" cd's that comes with the 
 > standard YDL distro? 
 > http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/java/jdk/linux130/.  

There are two java distributions available for ppc-linux.  The IBM
release is one, but they're up to 1.3.1 now.  The other is a ppc
version of the standard intel-linux package, also at 1.3.1.  If you
can use the IBM version you should, since it includes a component
called a 'jit' (just-in-time compiler) that significantly improves
java runtime speed.  Unfortunately the most recent ppc kernels cause
the IBM java to fail.  The other java has no jit but also has no
problem with newer kernels.


-- 
rshapiro@bbn.com