>>Rest assured, on my 25 Mhz mac VM, I can tell when java is more like
molasses.
>>(It's garbage collection drives me crazy sometimes).
>
>Rest assured, on my 120Mhz 604, Java is worse than Molasses moving
>downhill on a freezing day.
You don't mean uphill?
Honestly though people, Java works a lot better than you're giving it
credit. Java does have its troubles, but I believe they stem from people
expecting native performance from what's essentially an emulated machine.
In Apple's case specificly, MRJ 2.1 ea runs fairly well, and once all
the Oracle bugs have been zapped, MRJ 2.1 looks to be fairly robust. IE
4.1 already supports any version of MRJ you'd like to use, and Net 5.0
looks to do the same thing.
Why is this important for Stella programmers? Two reasons. One, if
we're going to be writing to files on the local hard disk, we can't use
the browser anyway. That's why I suggested the online DAsm emailing you
a bin or Java Makewav playing an .au file. That's about the only way to
get the info back. But if you're making a Java APPLICATION, the VM +
browser issues go away anyhow. Two, Java actually _is_ robust enough to
do a little magic on 6507 source. That's not a big deal. Garbage
collection is far enough along on the Win, UNIX, Linux, and now even Mac
platforms that any of the tools (Makewav would be a bear, however, imo)
could be ported to Java.
If I get a spare month from work this year ;^), I'll try to take apart
distella and make a Java version. Right after I make a Java "Datasette"
emulator for the C=64. Right after I finish that game I started for the
2600. Right after I finish my series on MacQuake LAN parties on
xlr8yourmac.com. Right after I take a nap.
Ruffin Bailey | Write Atari 2600 games on your PPC Mac!
rufbo at bellsouth.net | http://members.aol.com/mactari
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