Re: [VirtualGL-Devel] TurboVNC: Retiring the X11 viewer + better Java viewer integration on Windows

[DRC <dco...@us...>]

I guess my burning question is: is Apple still going to ship a downloadable JRE at all ?  Java hasn't been included in the O/S since 10.6, so users already have to download and install it prior to running the TVNC Viewer. I don't have any philosophical objections to bundling it. It would, in fact, be in keeping with our overall strategy of reproducibility (that is, being in control of the infrastructure we use, as much as possible, in the interest of controlling the quality.)

Given that a lot of sites are going to want to take the JWS approach, bundling our JRE doesn't necessarily eliminate the need to ever install Java on Mac. It just simplifies the install for those wanting to run the viewer locally. From a technical point of view, it would be great if someone could help me come up with a command-line procedure for bundling the JRE that doesn't require ant. :| From a licensing point of view, are there any potential snafus there? Is the JRE such that it requires including the source along with it? Any sense of the disk footprint? This is also of potential interest for Windows and Linux.

On Sep 20, 2013, at 12:51 AM, James Wettenhall <jam...@mo...> wrote:

> Hi DRC,
> 
> Thanks for all of the great work on the Java viewer - it's working really well for us on Mac OS X !
> 
> I do have one concern about Java on Mac OS X, which is not really related to retiring the X11 viewer.
> 
> In February 2013, Java 6, a.k.a. 1.6 (the Java Runtime Environment supplied by Apple) reached its "End of Public Updates" (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/eol-135779.html#Java6-end-public-updates).
> 
> Apple developers are now encouraged to bundle a Java 7 runtime environment with their application, so that the application is fully sandboxed (doesn't refer to anything outside of "TurboVNC Viewer.app/").
> 
> The Oracle page on packaging Java apps for Mac (http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/jweb/packagingAppsForMac.html) says "In order to distribute a Java application, you want to avoid dependencies on third party software. Your app package should include the Java Runtime Environment, or JRE."
> 
> Are there any plans to bundle the JRE into the Mac distribution of TurboVNC Viewer?
> 
> Thanks,
> James
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 20/09/2013, at 1:32 PM, DRC wrote:
> 
>> I've just put out a new pre-release of TurboVNC 
>> (http://virtualgl.sourceforge.net/vnc.nightly.13) that gives a sneak 
>> preview of one of the biggest changes in TurboVNC 1.3:
>> 
>> Retiring the X11 viewer
>> -----------------------
>> It has been decided to get rid of the X11 viewer, although it will still 
>> be maintained on a break/fix basis in the 1.2 branch (no new features, 
>> but I'll still fix bugs if you find them.)  I've had a cross-platform 
>> viewer on the roadmap for a while (initially slated to be a port of the 
>> existing Windows viewer), and that may yet happen in coming years, but 
>> given how well the Java+JNI solution is working, I'm personally more 
>> interested in focusing on that path, since it's so much more flexible.
>> 
>> The new Linux packages automatically launch the Java viewer when you run 
>> /opt/TurboVNC/bin/vncviewer.  I am very interested in any feedback on 
>> this.  In particular:
>> 
>> -- Do you notice any performance difference relative to the old X11 
>> viewer?  Note that you need MIT-SHM pixmaps enabled to get peak 
>> performance-- the viewer script will complain if they aren't.
>> 
>> -- Do you have any issues with launching it?  In particular, does it 
>> cause problems with the Java implementation on any platforms you use? 
>> Note that if the "java" command isn't in your PATH, you can set 
>> JAVA_HOME to the directory of your JRE, and the vncviewer script will 
>> pick up on that.
>> 
>> -- Any functional issues?  Any features or behavior that you enjoyed 
>> from the old X11 viewer that you'd like to see incorporated?  I'm aware 
>> of the lack of key grabbing support, and that's definitely something 
>> that will go into it (somehow) before it is released.
>> 
>> -- Advice?  Hate mail?
>> 
>> Better integration of the Java TurboVNC Viewer on Windows
>> ---------------------------------------------------------
>> The new Windows packages now include the libjpeg-turbo JNI library 
>> (turbojpeg.dll), so the Java viewer will be accelerated without having 
>> to install the libjpeg-turbo SDK separately.  I have not done a thorough 
>> evaluation of the native vs. Java performance on Windows yet, so any 
>> feedback on that is welcome as well.  There is no plan to retire the 
>> Windows viewer, but I would like the Java viewer to perform as close to 
>> it as possible, since a lot of people are starting to use the Java 
>> viewer as a zero-install solution.
>> 
>> On Windows, a script is now included (c:\program 
>> files\turbovnc\vncviewer-java.bat) that will allow you to access the 
>> command-line functions of the Java viewer, such as the -via and -tunnel 
>> options for SSH tunneling.
>> 
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