Posted by gouessej on Dec 09, 2023; 10:08am
URL: https://forum.jogamp.org/32-bit-Windows-natives-tp4043189p4043206.html

Dolda2000 wrote

I've seen other sites do that, and I've always thought it's an ugly solution. For example, sometimes you want to download a file on one system and run it on another, and even when that's not the case, OS detection is heuristic at best. In addition, if you just get an EXE file automatically, you might fool people into thinking that it's a Windows-only program.

It's quite cleanly done on sourceforge.net, you can suggest a package for the detected platform while displaying the support of some other platforms. If you find that not convenient or misleading, you can show all files of all platforms and simply highlight the one that suits the most or let the user choose. As long as you don't suggest too many files, the end users won't be lost. If your audience is mostly composed of technical users, it won't be a problem.

Dolda2000 wrote

gouessej wrote

but your launcher program is still limited to the options available in the manifest.

Admittedly true, but I fail to see when that could possibly be a problem.

You don't have the control on the available memory for your launcher program. If you target machines supporting 64-bit JREs but using 32-bit JREs because of the lack of memory, you'll have to hope that your launcher program doesn't use too much memory, such a problem can happen in other circumstances.

Dolda2000 wrote

To begin with, all my assets taken together still use far less than a full JRE -- I think it's currently somewhere around 30 MB. But also, again, since it's sometimes desirable to re-download the launcher and to consider it somewhat throw-away, that's still enough reason for me to try and keep it as small as possible. I consider the launcher a replacement for JNLP, which I still find unfortunate that it went away.

I used Java WebStart for years, it was quite buggy, making it work everywhere was nearly impossible. Yes you're right especially if you use Swing, it will be difficult to minimize a JRE to get something under 30 MB.

Dolda2000 wrote

I'd expect there to at least exist a subset of users who would complain, but I can't recall seeing a single complaint ever. There have been requests to be on some common app-stores (which I resent), but none about Java being required.

I'll admit it's not as it was 15 years ago when some prebuilt computers came with Java preinstalled, but in my experience it's not that bad, at least not yet.

It would be nice if there were some executable file format that were supported out of the box on all the common platforms, but until such time as that is the case, I find Java to be the least bad approximation.

I understand your position about app-stores, I refuse using them too. I don't advise to abandon Java, I suggest to avoid expecting non technical users to have a compatible JRE installed on the system.