Contents

• Instructions for the JXXX Compiler Service
• Notes
• Limitations
• Commonly encountered Problems
• In Case of Problems

Instructions for the JXXX Compiler Service

The form contains fields where you can enter the files you want compiled, plus some helper files; use the "Browse..." buttons next to each field to select the files you want (one file per field). After entering the desired source-files, library-files etc in the input fields and clicking on Compile you will get a page containing the standard output from the compiler (if any) and a link to the output-file(s) (if created); each output-file is deleted after being accessed. The link AllClasses.tar.gz will return a gzip'd tar file containing all the output-files; similarly, AllClasses.zip will return a zip file containing all class-files. Furthermore if you provide an html file in the Display File field then this file will be used to display the applet(s) you've just compiled.

To view applets directly specify an html file in Display file. This file must contain at least the appropriate <APPLET >, <PARAM > and </APPLET> tags for each applet you want to view, and may contain anything else you wish too (so if you're preparing an applet for a specific page you can just use that page). The contents of the file will then be appended to the usual output generated by the scripts, with the CODEBASE attribute for each <APPLET > tag suitably munged.

For more information on what the various options do see the java compiler Reference Pages (note: not all listed options are supported by this service).

The "Library file" fields enable you to compile files which require additional libraries (packages) to the standard ones. In this field you can specify a jar or zip file containing all the necessary additional classes.

Notes

If your browser can run applets then all files you don't pick up will be automagically deleted when you leave the page; if however your browser can't/won't run applets then please always either access all the output files listed (or AllClasses.tar.gz/AllClasses.zip) or click on the Delete All Files link; otherwise the files don't get removed from our system.

Limitations

• You can compile a maximum of 5 files at a time. If you need to compile more than that at a time you can create your own version of this form locally with more input fields and use that to access the cgi-scripts for the compiler.
• /'s and \'s in the filename are assumed to be path specifiers and everything preceding the last / or \ is stripped; therefore these cannot be part of the filename.
• When displaying your applets here there is a problem when those applets try to load images. Browser security policies dictate that applets can only connect to the server from which they were loaded (in this case our site). If your applets try to load images from somewhere other than our site they will get a security exception and won't be started. To solve this for the simplest case where you need just one image, another field Image file has been added where you can specify an image file that will be put in the same place as your class files and that can therefore be loaded by the applet(s). Here too, if you need more image files then create your own version of this form locally with multiple image input fields (the cgi-script will handle an arbitrary number of input fields for any of the three types of input).

Commonly encountered Problems

• Many versions of MSIE are broken (so what's new?) and don't implement the multipart/form-data encoding correctly. I've worked around most errors, but some I just refuse to. I've noted that at least "MSIE 3.01; Mac_PowerPC" will fail - you'll see the error "Error: parts boundary not found in body". If you run into this, then please get a new version of the browser, or better yet, get something like Firefox which has always worked correctly.
• This service cannot be used to compile java class files into native exe's, nor will it handle javascript (javascript has nothing to do with java - it just happens to have a similar name). This service will only compile java source files into class files.
• The source files must be in normal ascii text; do not try to use a word processor (such as Word) for writing java programs, as the output will contain formatting information which the compiler cannot understand.
• Java source files must have the extension .java or .jav. Some editors on Win95 or NT (such as Notepad) seem to want to save files with the extension .txt. To solve this put the entire filename in quotes in the save dialog. Alternatively, you can first create an empty file with the .java extension and then edit that.
• When uploading large files be patient. Depending on the link this may take a few minutes. Also note that for instance Netscape will display the status Contacting host: www.innovation.ch while the data is being uploaded; i.e. status line is misleading here, since the server has already been contacted and the upload is in progress.

In Case of Problems

If you have any comments, suggestions, problems, bug-reports etc. please send me e-mail. When submitting a bug report please make sure you mention the browser and version you're using, the OS you're using and the exact output given by the compiler.

Feel free to contact me if you want to set up your own version of this page and would like the cgi-scripts.

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