Re: LYNX-DEV extension languages for Lynx

[David Combs]

> From address@hidden Thu Jan  8 17:33:26 1998
> Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 16:54:49 -0800 (PST)
> From: Matt Ackeret <address@hidden>
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: LYNX-DEV extension languages for Lynx
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> On 8 Jan 1998, Jason F. McBrayer wrote:
> >>>>>> "MA" == Matt Ackeret <address@hidden> writes:
> >MA> On Thu, 8 Jan 1998, David Combs wrote:
> >>> If we rewrite Lynx from scratch, lets at least
> >>> do it in JAVA (assuming that java will eventually
> >>> work on dos -- without "windows"-display stuff.
> >MA> If you have some magical Java that runs on a UNIX system with a
> >MA> tty interface, great.
> >Wasn't someone working on a curses implementation/subset of AWT
> >recently?  Anyway, Java doesn't necessarily imply a window-system.
> 
> I guess we're starting to get off topic here, but I was under
> the impression that Java, or at least the "standard" libraries (AWT?),
> assumed a bitmapped display..  I mean, except for the "console" window
> you see spit out errors, everything in Java seems very GUI-y.
> 
> 

FALSE.

The ONLY reason you and everyone else thinks Java
requires a bit-mapped screen and "is very GUI-y"
is because SUN, for the last couple of years,
has promoted ONLY that PART of java that can do
web pages with jumping penguins, bouncing balls,
music playing, etc.

Again, here is a hello-world program in java:

179 ===> cat HelloWorld.java 
public class HelloWorld {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
     System.out.println("Hello World");
  }
}
180 ===> java HelloWorld
Hello World
181 ===> 


(Well, there is a "javac HelloWorld.java"
done earlier that you don't see here.)


No gui, no bit-mapped screen needed.  Can use
a dumb terminal logged into a time-sharing
computer, and get the same thing.

If you aren't doing a gui-based application,
you don't need a bit-mapped screen to program
it.  Just a shell, eg csh, (or dos?), and
an editor, eg vi; that's all you need for
writing your application, big or small.

As with C++, you CAN purchase a fancy gui-based
development system, and look at nice trees of
your classes, etc, but you sure don't need it.

Further, the built-in debugger works line-mode
too, via typed-in commands like "step"
and "print" and "gc" and "locals" (show local vars
), "suspend" and "resume" (of threads, built-in),
"where" (show stack), etc, etc.

----

To learn about java, the BEST BOOK OUT THERE is
the $19.95 (cheap) "Java in a nutshell (2nd ed)" from
O'Reilly.  Does assume you know C and some C++,
but is a super intro to java; very concise, and
yet has the entire language (with examples) in the
first 270 pages, then the rest of the 600 pages
total consists of class diagrams and all "member"
fcns (and data) and their args.

A fantastic value for those who already know C
and have reading knowledge of C++.