Using JDK splash screen from Web Start

[Anthony Petrov]

On 5/2/2012 7:08 PM, Scott Kovatch wrote:
>> And yes, I think you have to do something similar to what we do in java_md.
> 
> Okay. I'm not a fan of replicating code like that, but if I have to, I have to.
> 
>> We decided to drop this idea because it would involve inter-process communication between the _spalsh and java processes because a java app may want to manipulate the splash screen. I'm not saying that this is impossible to implement, but it looks like too much of an effort for such a toy feature as the splash screen. Besides, I don't see why would such an approach be preferable to what we have already implemented, why would we have to re-implement it. Are there any issues with the current implementation?
> 
> In general, no. I had no problems with using the splash feature in a simple AWT app. It's just that I won't be able to reuse as much code as I thought to implement a small feature, and that leaves me grouchy. :-)
> 
> Web Start, in fact, does exactly the kind of cross-process communication you describe to hide the splash screen after a short delay. 

Well, one thing is to send a simple "hide" signal through the IPC, and 
the other one is to update the rendered image dynamically, which seems 
to be slightly more heavyweight than sending a simple signal, eh? :) I 
investigated this possibility actually, and there exist some memory 
restrictions for this kind of communication which complicates the matter 
even further. It just doesn't seem to be worth it.

As to the code replication, why not export necessary functions from the 
Java Launcher dynamic library and call them from the WebStart? After 
all, the Web Start is actually a kind of a launcher, so there must be 
some room for code sharing I believe (perhaps in future releases only, 
but still.)

--
best regards,
Anthony