NetBeans noobie Q: Compiling for Windows and Mac

[Mary Pegg]

Hi, I inherited a Java project, which involved a very simple change to
the source to fix it, and I've now produced a working .jar file using
NetBeans 5.5 (on Ubuntu 6.10).

I'm a NetBeans noob.

The original distribution (i.e. download directory) contained four files:
proj-java.zip
proj-osx.dmg.gz
proj-win.zip
proj-winjre.zip

all about 6MB in size apart from the Windows JRE one (about 28MB).
So far I've created a new proj-java.zip; how do I get NetBeans to
produce the OS-specific files?

Hope this is the appropriate newsgroup.

 

[Andrew Thompson]

Hi, I inherited a Java project, which involved a very simple change to
the source to fix it, and I've now produced a working .jar file using
NetBeans 5.5 (on Ubuntu 6.10).

I'm a NetBeans noob.

The original distribution (i.e. download directory) contained four files:
proj-java.zip
proj-osx.dmg.gz

What is in this file? It sounds the one most closely
related to Mac.

proj-win.zip
proj-winjre.zip

all about 6MB in size apart from the Windows JRE one (about 28MB).

Very few people would distribute a JRE, the only
reasons I can think of to do so are..
The company has an extremely fast LAN
The product is only known to work using one single
obscure JRE micro-version.

What reason does this app. use?

So far I've created a new proj-java.zip; how do I get NetBeans to
produce the OS-specific files?

What 'OS' specific files? The only OS specific files mentioned
so far are the Win JRE, and while it would not be common
to provide a Win JRE, I have never heard of 'private' vendors
for Mac. Java - which is supplied by Macintosh, along with
the OS (AFAIU).

Hope this is the appropriate newsgroup.

This is a good one for this question, but I think
we need a lot more details on this 'deployment'
to help you.

E.G. The file you listed were all Zip files - these might
be 'launched' easily using web-start, but failing using
web-start - what is the 'installation procedure'? What
do each of the Zips contain? Do they contain 'loose'
resources, or other Zip and Jar archives?
Does the project include DLL's or .so files?

(I am a little confused when you mention 'OS specific'
files - good java projects should have very few resources
which are specific to an OS. Beyond the JRE, it would
be OS specific natives.. thats about it, I think)


Andrew T.

 

[Mary Pegg]

What is in this file? It sounds the one most closely
related to Mac.

Well it is, it's some sort of OS X disk image.

Very few people would distribute a JRE, the only
reasons I can think of to do so are..
The company has an extremely fast LAN
The product is only known to work using one single
obscure JRE micro-version.

What reason does this app. use?

The website does some sort of test that Java is installed and
if not then the user is directed to the file that includes the
JRE.

What 'OS' specific files? The only OS specific files mentioned
so far are the Win JRE, and while it would not be common
to provide a Win JRE, I have never heard of 'private' vendors
for Mac. Java - which is supplied by Macintosh, along with
the OS (AFAIU).

The OS specific files are proj-win.zip and proj-osx.dmg.gz.

The Windows file unzips into an .exe. This .exe is a WinZip
self-extracting file that runs an installer which creates
C:\Program Files\Proj and puts the .jar and lib files in there.

(I am a little confused when you mention 'OS specific'

Not just me, then. (I've inherited this project).
I thought there might be a "standard" NetBeans way of producing
these OS-specific installers, but it doesn't look like it.

 

[Andrew Thompson]

Mary Pegg wrote:
(trim the saga...)

Not just me, then. (I've inherited this project).
I thought there might be a "standard" NetBeans way of producing
these OS-specific installers, but it doesn't look like it.

The 'standard' way to install and launch Java
applications is using the Sun based web-start
technology.

It sounds like you would be better off dumping
the current build/deployment system (which seems
incredibly overblown to me), and looking into
web-start to launch the app., with a little JS in
a web page to determine if a suitable JWS
service is avaialbe, and let the user know
where to get it otherwise.

Andrew T.

 

[Mary Pegg]

a web page to determine if a suitable JWS
service is avaialbe, and let the user know
where to get it otherwise.

This is presumably precisely what the current
build is meant to avoid! It may be overblown
but from the end user point of view the Windows
deployment is 100% click-and-drool.

 

[Daniel Pitts]

This is presumably precisely what the current
build is meant to avoid! It may be overblown
but from the end user point of view the Windows
deployment is 100% click-and-drool.

The JWS approach is 95% click-and-drool. It also happens to be a
supported deployment mechanism on multiple architectures.

 

[Mary Pegg]

The JWS approach is 95% click-and-drool.

Presumably the customer was given the option and decided
that 100% was required. That 5% could be quite expensive
in support calls.