Why on earth doesnt Sun...

[appel]

There are a few tiny things that annoy me about Java, and it's basicly desktop integretion.

For instance, any Java file, .class, .java, .jar, .war etc. has no association with my windows. Windows doesn't recognize these files, and they have this silly wordpad document icon, or winrar icon at my home pc.

And those jar files, you dont have a clue what's in them. Is it a library? An gui application? A console application? In my opinion Sun needs new standardized file format for GUI Application, or Console Application, or Java Library - AND THEY SHOULD HAVE ICONS!!

Seriously, people like to be able to recognize things by associating the icon of them with something, you shouldn't have to have a folder of 100 jar files, and don't know what type of jar files they are! I had to manually associate jar files to a java icon, something a normal user couldn't do.

Oh well, just little things like that, something trivial, but still Sun hasn't figured it out.

[princec]

They are on mine. Maybe Mustang did it for me.

Cas

[ChrisM]

There are a few tiny things that annoy me about Java, and it's basicly desktop integretion.

For instance, any Java file, .class, .java, .jar, .war etc. has no association with my windows. Windows doesn't recognize these files, and they have this silly wordpad document icon, or winrar icon at my home pc.

And those jar files, you dont have a clue what's in them. Is it a library? An gui application? A console application? In my opinion Sun needs new standardized file format for GUI Application, or Console Application, or Java Library - AND THEY SHOULD HAVE ICONS!!

Seriously, people like to be able to recognize things by associating the icon of them with something, you shouldn't have to have a folder of 100 jar files, and don't know what type of jar files they are! I had to manually associate jar files to a java icon, something a normal user couldn't do.

Oh well, just little things like that, something trivial, but still Sun hasn't figured it out.

Let's face it, if a user can't manually associate icons to apps, then they shouldn't be mucking around with anything in the file system to begin with.  I understand it's an annoyance in your particular case but for the average user who will running a game developed in Java, they, more than likely, will never delve into the file structure anyway.  The only icons that 99% of home computer users care about is what is in their start tree and on their desktop.

-Chris

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Tzan]

So true Chris.

Last month I spent about 1.5 hours with someone who thought they knew how to use their computer. They knew how to run apps, email and save stuff, but they got stuck when it came to figuring out explorer and their own file system. I expect they will never run a java app in their lifetime.

Lucky for me it was a customer so I got paid for that too

[appel]

Today I downloaded 2 files, one was a Windows Setup Executable program (.exe) with a nice little icon showing a cd and box....pretty clear that it's a setup program. And i also downloaded a jar file, it had a wordpad icon, not telling me really what kind of an "application" it was, so I double-clicked on it and it started a setup process, very much like the previous one.

It also wasn't until recently jar files were associated in my windows so they would *run* when I double-clicked on them. I used to double-click on them and get this "select application to run with..." popup window. Appearently installing java doesn't do that automatically. So, for me, it's no problem browsing to c:\program files\java\jre1.5.xxx\bin\.... and so on, but for normal users? I don't think so. So, running a os-independent application seems to be impossible for the mainstream of computer users.

I don't know, it seems strange to be annoyed by things like this. But it's always the little things that matter the most.


Also, I don't really understand why programs like Eclipse, NetBeans, Azerues (bit torrent client) and other GUI java applications need an .EXE file to run? I find it strange since Java was supposed to be OS-independent?

Also, the setup process for Azerues was no different than installing a regular windows application, the program was nicely integrated with your desktop. You even get the azereus icon in the system tray when you minimize it. But with Eclipse, you download this file, extract it, and there you go, install complete. I really think Java written gui applications needs some standard way of installing themselves into the users desktop os.