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Java Programming

Web-Based Java Compiler Service 50

Posted by timothy from the web-services dept.
TheSync writes "Ronald Tschalär has set up a Web-based Java compiler service. Just type in your source file names and the JDK you'd like to compiler them with (1.1.8,1.2.2,1.3.1 or 1.4.1), and hit "compile." This makes getting started with Java easier, since you don't have to get the whole JDK."
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Web-Based Java Compiler Service More

Web-Based Java Compiler Service

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  • Do you people not proofread the submissions around here? Such a glaring gramatical error should not have been allowed to slip through the cracks. If you're afraid of changing what people have written, just state in the submission area that submissions will be checked and changed to insure gramatical correctness.

  • Huh?? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Visigothe ( 3176 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @03:00PM (#5815694) Homepage
    Ok, perhaps I am missing the point, but what is easier, downloading a single file, or uploading all your source to a remote server, hitting the "go" button, then downloading the binary?

    It seems to me that DLing the JDK would be much simpler


    • I agree, this wouldn't be easier if the user was working with a single version. But it might be easier than downloading all of those versions of the JDK, if the user wants to try each one.

      Offering compilation over the web has been around for a while. I don't know why this is news.

      • Do not try them all! (Score:4, Informative)

        by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Sunday April 27, 2003 @01:28AM (#5817747) Homepage Journal
        I agree, this wouldn't be easier if the user was working with a single version. But it might be easier than downloading all of those versions of the JDK, if the user wants to try each one.
        Strictly speaking, there is only one version. Or if you want to get really picky, there's four versions, three of which are unsupported. There are an ungodly number of releases, which contain things like bug fixes and minor new features. But these are supposed to be backward compatible with the old versions. Anything that's not is a bug.

        Of course, in the real world, bugs happen, and people need to use old versions of the JDK to work around them. But anybody who's working at that level is a sophisticated Java programmer, not a newbie. Such a person does need the whole JDK!

    • That's the theory (Score:4, Informative)

      by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @09:16PM (#5817010) Homepage Journal
      In theory you're right. But that single file is huge. When I worked for JavaSoft, there was a lot of negative feedback from people who had slow and/or unreliable internet connections, and couldn't keep an ftp or http connection open long enough.

      The obvious solution is to provide some kind of download manager (as Netscape and Real now do). Or organize the Java SDK into smaller independent packages. Or allow outsiders to start up mirror sites overseas. Or... But life at Sun is full of politics and bureaucracy (which is why I no longer work there), and getting even the simplest solution in place is like pulling teeth.

      • Can you say "bit torrent"?
        • Gawd, I can just imagine trying to convince the Sun bureaucracy to deploy something like Bit Torrent. Can you say, "snowflake in hell"?
          • It ought to be simple: "I can save you a boatload of money on bandwidth to give away the software you can't sell." (No wonder Sun's going down the Toilet.)
            • Well, Sun's worse than most. But I've never worked for any large organization that didn't have this kind of problem. Getting a lot of people to work together without screwing each other up is not easy. Especially when a lot of them have big egos.
      • command: foo
        • echo after sending all of your private source code through an insecure socket, you actually got a binary back
        foo:
        • echo "POST http://foo/bar/wasdfawasdfadf...
    • The point is they could possibly pinch yer source code! Or anyone sniffing the traffic could pinch yer code as well...

  • T-minus 10ns to Slashdotting... (Score:4, Funny)

    by themo0c0w ( 594693 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @03:00PM (#5815696)

    Ok, this guy is offering *compilation* services over the web.

    He just got linked from /.

    Wanna guess how long before his servers go up in smoke from the slashdot-effect?

  • Be careful! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by clambake ( 37702 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @05:06PM (#5816295) Homepage
    foreach $file (@uploadedfiles) {

    insertRootExploit($file);

    }

  • Strikes me (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Timesprout ( 579035 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @05:08PM (#5816298)
    as a ridiculous exercise. Installing the JDK is not a hassle. If it is then you really dont want to be coding in Java. Neither do you really want to be compiling against anything less than 1.4.0. If for some reason you do the older JDK's are available from the Javasoft site along with the latest JDK's. The JDK also provides the source files which are an invaluable learning aid for Java.

    Compiling 5 files will only get you the most trivial of examples in any case.

    If you are only starting out there are many books available which come with a copy of a JDK, as do many IDE's such as IDEA and JBuilder. This would be better place to start. Trying to learn by remote compiling sound like a very painful experience to me.

    • Re:Strikes me (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Not all java newbies have broadband you instensitive clod. Did you check the latest JDKs? 1.3.1 wincows executable is around 40MB, 1.4.1 windows executable is around 37MB, RPM is 40MB again. Which one is easier? Downloading one of these with a modem for hours or just uploading a helloworld.java? Not all people compile thousands of java classes (I do).
      • Back when I had dial up, I said "gimme" 1.whatever it was back then and then went to sleep.

        The next morning I woke up and installed it. Total PERSONAL time? 10 minutes max.

        You really don't have to watch the progress bar when the file's coming in. I suggest doing something more constructive like, spending time with a girl! (or guy if that's your preference)
    • "Installing the JDK is not a hassle. If it is then you really dont want to be coding in Java"

      Or anything else for that matter...

  • Are people that lazy? (Score:2, Informative)

    by f00zbll ( 526151 )
    Ronald is the author of one of the most useful java libs HTTPClient. I've used it and the quality of the code is good. I can see situations where a person doesn't want to d/l the entire jdk because they're on dial-up. JDK1.4.1 is 36megs. On a dial-up that is really painfully slow.

    the older jdk's are smaller, but it's still 8-10 megs for jdk1.1.8. Plus it's hard to find the link on Sun's jdk archive site. the page is useful, but you'd be better of d/l the jdk or buying a java book that comes with the jdk.

  • jikes (Score:3, Informative)

    by sa3 ( 628661 ) on Saturday April 26, 2003 @09:38PM (#5817061)
    What's wrong with using jikes to compile your programs? It's not even 1 mb, it just needs rt.jar from the JRE.

    jikes website [ibm.com]

    The JRE includes the same huge libraries that the JDK has, so there isn't much point in downloading the JRE on its own anyway

  • This is far from newsworthy... besides the fact that very few people need to use this. I used this in 2001, and according to archive.org, it was up in 1998. Not quite breaking news.

    BTW, I used it because at high school I didn't have access to install a java compiler.

  • Interesting... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Sunlighter ( 177996 ) on Sunday April 27, 2003 @01:10AM (#5817678)

    Just some random thoughts.

    DJ Delorie has had a public access compiler [delorie.com] up for years. It's based on DJGPP. You could type in a little snippet of source code and get a DOS-extended executable. But you couldn't use C++ and you couldn't set the compiler flags. Probably just as well.

    This kind of service is primarily useful for very small programs. If your Java program is ten lines long, and you have the JRE, this kind of web service is much better than downloading a 40 megabyte compiler. However, I would prefer to download the source for the service and have it on an internal (or secure) webserver that I can control. Java's libraries are large enough that maybe some pretty short programs can do useful things. On the other hand, you usually have to call dozens of functions for even simple stuff.

    This is also made possible by the fact that the compiler is not Turing-complete or anything. Languages like Forth and Common Lisp can be compiled to produce executables, but they make the runtime available at compile time, so you could theoretically write code to open up /etc/passwd and e-mail you a copy during the compile. Even simpler, you could just allocate huge gobs of memory at compile time and try to bring the server down. Here, Java's lack of macros and #include, which to me is usually a disadvantage, can turn into an advantage.

  • It seems all the comments here are of the "too lazy to download the JDK" variety, so I'm giving up moderation to chime in...

    I think this raises many issues surrounding the web service model. Sure this particular instance is just an HTML upload form, but suppose he'd wrapped this service up and exposed it via SOAP...it's now possible to programatically use this licensed application remotely while it's only "installed on a single machine", etc.

    Have any licenses touched on the idea of web services? Can I

  • Please excuse me if I have missed some obvous point, but why not put up on your 'compiler website' an applet that does the complition on the user's computer, in order to avoid using up cycles on the server? It should be relatively simple to put together such an applet, with two text boxes, one to paste the source into, and one for compler messages. When compilation is complete, The user clicks a button to copy the compled class onto the system clipboard from where it can be saved.

    In order to work the appl

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