Applets only supporting Java 1.6 an above

Networking & Multiplayer
#1

Hello everyone!

Before i ask my question I want to say im very happy to discover this forum, i didn’t know a popular java games forum existed, i shouldve looked i guess!

Anyway, being very new to online java games development, i have a question.

In my applet i have used classed which are new to Java 1.6, the SwingWorker for one example. Currently I have a small bit of code that checks the java version installed on the computer, if it’s < 1.6 then it will trigger a download of the latest java version (using the deployment toolkit provided on the sun site).

What i want to ask is would there be some users who would find this annoying, do some people prefer to keep a few versions back?

Also I heard that the Mac JVM has differnt version numbers, would the current mac jvm support all the classed in Java 1.6?

Sorry if any of these questions are stupid! ???

Thanks for any help!

#2

[quote]What i want to ask is would there be some users who would find this annoying, do some people prefer to keep a few versions back?
[/quote]
a little more than 50% users should have 1.6 or over, IMO a cupple of people may quit if they have to install anything

[quote]Also I heard that the Mac JVM has differnt version numbers, would the current mac jvm support all the classed in Java 1.6?
[/quote]
Mac can report 1.8 version wich is inded wrong

#3

Hiya, thanks for the reply.

I wonder if the deployment toolkit takes into account download the right JVM for the mac, i would image so but ill have to check it out…

#4

32bit macs can only use Java 1.5 so a lot of people with macs can’t use Java 1.6.

#5

really?! Why is that?

So if i want to support those people i have to remove my swingworkers? ~damn

I presumed that regardless of the Java version currently installed (if any) everyone would at least have the ability to upgrade to latest version, i guess that was an incorrect assumption? :-\

#6

im about to ask a (maybe) very stupid but related question. So my applet runs on java 1.5 whats to stop me taking the binarys of the swingworker class from jre 1.6 and dumping them in my applets jar file, Then recompiling the jar then with 1.5 compatibility?

#7

[quote]Posted by: rackham
Insert Quote
really?! Why is that?

So if i want to support those people i have to remove my swingworkers? ~damn
[/quote]
If you want to support a lot of macs then you will have to support Java 1.5.
Maybe someone else can go into details why. But I heard its because they only ported the server version of Java which only came in 64bit.

#8

Just use backport of SwingWorker: https://swingworker.dev.java.net/
Similarly if you’re using GroupLayout: https://swing-layout.dev.java.net/ (NetBeans will bundle it automatically when you select it in form properties)

For general applications it’s still better to use 1.5 as a minimal target these days.

#9

The main reason is because Apple cares more about the iPod than it does Mac OS X these days.

#10

this is all a matter of compatibility …
1.6 => approx 50 %
1.5 => approx 65 %
1.4 => approx 70 %
1.1 => approx 90 % (from different source)

http://www.riastats.com/

#11

but those figures represent the current install version as opposed to the highest version permitted by the users system. I have no issues which saying to the user they need to upgrade their JVM to a newer version, but if that version is higher than the users system can support it would be a bit of a bummer!

good stats site…

#12

ps… thanks for all the replys, ill look into the swingworker backport in a min…

looking at the RIASTATS site posted above, it reports x amount of users with java 1.8 installed, i didnt realise there was 1.8!??! I saw 1.7 was on an early look release, whats going on?

#13
#14

ah yes sorry!

I have an information rentention problem…

#15

are 32 bit macs running < OSX, i cant see any mac OS stats on what sort of % of mac owners would fall into this catagory…

#16

Most of them. My laptop is only a year old and it doesn’t even have 64 bit. I originally thought it did, but it definitely doesn’t Anybody with a Mac newer than mine probably has 64 bit, but I’m guessing there will never be a time when there are a lot of Mac users with 1.6 Probably when 1.7 comes out we’ll finally get an update, and that’ll happen before 64-bit Intel’s are the majority of the Mac market.