Nieminen Mika wrote:
> 
> Lonnie Ezell <lez### [at] pcisnet> wrote:
> : I don't know anything about Java's capabilities...Can it really provide the
> : speed and power that this sort of program would need?
> 
>   You are completely right. I don't like the idea of waiting 10 seconds for
> the program to redraw the wireframe, etc.
>   I think java is extremely overestimated. I think that in 99.9% of the
> computers you have to run the java program in a slow javavm-emulation, and,
> besides, the java support of many systems and programs is really deficient...

Well, there needs to be a distinction drawn in what you are speaking
about. It appears that you are mainly talking about experience with Java
Applets, which are a different animal than full Java applications.

With the current JIT Compilers on Windows, performance is greatly
increased. Also, the VM's in most browsers may not be the best, but a
stand-alone app can use the latest and greatest.

More importantly is the problem being addressed and the manner in which
the solution is approached. Given my general understanding of the
problem, I'd have to say that most of it could be done with Java.
Breaking things down into modeller and animator would be a logical
separation. The animator should have no problem in Java. The modeller
would have the most potential for performance problems.

Taking the modeller separately, I'll guess what the problems might be.
Probably screen update speed is the main factor. Now, an applet might
have some major problems with this, but given a stand-alone application
it would be possible to take advantage of one of the specific Java API's
such as Java2D or Java3D (which can be calling OpenGL).

If need be, a simple native method could be written to do the screen
display. In general it's much the same as doing a C++ Widows app. You
don't try to
call SetPixel() for each pixel on screen.


Bottom line is, I'm not trying to say that a animator/modeller done in
Java will
be just as fast, but that done correctly it would be fast enough for the
problem at hand. Especially if it had OpenGL support.


For simple examples of something done with no extension API's, try:

http://java.sun.com/applets/MoleculeViewer/example1.html
http://java.sun.com/applets/MoleculeViewer/example2.html
http://java.sun.com/applets/MoleculeViewer/example3.html

http://java.sun.com/applets/WireFrame/example1.html
http://java.sun.com/applets/WireFrame/example2.html
http://java.sun.com/applets/WireFrame/example3.html
http://java.sun.com/applets/WireFrame/example4.html

(those were from http://java.sun.com/applets/js-applets.html )

For more on the mentioned API's:

http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/index.html
http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/3D/index.html

http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/3D/forDevelopers/NTR.html







BTW, if you want to really see a bad solution to a problem, check out
the results of the VJ++ Applet Wizard.  :P

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