RE: [Plplot-devel] Java examples don't work for me

[Alan W. I. <ir...@be...>]

On Tue, 23 Oct 2001, Geoffrey Furnish wrote:

> Alan W. Irwin writes:
>  > Geoffrey, you may have misunderstood me since you talk about eliminating
>  > packages which is a phrase I certainly did not use.
>
> My point is that I believe your request is synonymous with eliminating
> packages.  Perhaps I am mistaken, but I don't have information to
> persuade me otherwise at this time.
>
> CLASSPATH is supposed to point to the /root/ of your java package
> system.  If a Java class file lives in package x.y, then you point
> CLASSPATH to the parent of x, and reference the class as x/y/z.  If
> you want to eliminate the string "x/y/z", I believe this effectively
> means eliminating the package structure.

Thanks for that clarification.  I had no clue what you meant by packages
before, and I have to confess I interpreted the phrase "eliminating packages"
as something to do with eliminating software packages. But now I understand
what you are talking about, I agree that what I was asking for before was to
eliminate the package structure, but I now refine that request, see below.

> In other words, I'd rather do the experiments with HelloWorld class
> things, than with PLplot.

I have done those tests which I believe can be summarized as package
structure does not work for 1.1.8.  Nevertheless, it does work for 1.2.2 and
above as my further tests last night proved.  So I don't mind if you put
PLStream.class in its own package.  I like that because the extra
plplot.core helps to identify it and also eliminates name clashes, and I
also think it is acceptable to say we don't support anything before
jdk-1.2.2.

I guess my only remaining objection is having the examples in a package
structure.  To me that seems like unnecessary complexity. It gives the
mistaken impression to the java newbie like me that my own java code for
plotting must be in a complicated directory structure.  Thus, I believe you
should remove the package command from all the examples so the resulting
class files appear right in tmp and are part of no formal java package. (I
have just done this on my own and it works fine so long as you have your
CLASSPATH set up as

echo $CLASSPATH
.:/home/software/plplot_cvs/HEAD/plplot/tmp/java/

The initial . finds any class file you have compiled into the local
directory wherever that may be, and the /home/etc.... finds the
PLStream.class.  That latter directory would be changed if PLStreams.class
was installed, of course.  Also note for all user examples, that at least
two paths will always be required of CLASSPATH unless PLStreams.class is
installed in a java default location.) In my view compiling into the local
directory will be more representative of the way that most java users will
be using plplot. All java examples I have seen recently (and I have seen
quite a few) compile their class files right into the current directory, and
I think that keeping things simple this way is an excellent choice for our
examples as well.

However, that is just my $0.02 Canadian from my java newbie perspective, and
if you feel it is necessary to keep the package complexity for the examples,
I would be willing to accept that (albeit somewhat reluctantly) as well.

Alan