JDK-8147501 [packager] Add arguments for splash screen

[Alan Snyder]

I am writing to raise awareness of this bug. Splash screens are a supported feature of Java, but there is no way to use this feature when using the packager to create a bundled application (at least when using the ant tasks, which is how I use the packager).

This problem also raises related issues:

There are two ways supported by Java for specifying a splash screen, one using a command line argument (-splash) and one using a Manifest file attribute. Both of these ways are blocked by the packager.

The command line argument approach is blocked apparently because the packager launcher ignores JVM options that it does not know about. I have to wonder why there is an extra gatekeeper here. Doesn’t the JVM already reject or ignore options it does not support? Why should some JDK developer have to maintain consistency between the launcher and the JVM?

The Manifest file approach is blocked because the packager owns the Manifest file for a bundled application JAR. It apparently does not support adding attributes (even though the JAR making option does support adding attributes). Nor does it allow the Manifest to be replaced. Either or both of these options would seem reasonable.

Regards,

  Alan

[1] https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/misc/splashscreen.html <https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/misc/splashscreen.html>