Re: different testing OS

[Cynthia Jeness <cj@goldencode.com>]

Fernando,

Can you elaborate on some of the problems that you have seen?  I have had
very good success (using Swing on the Client) since JDK 1.3.


Linda,

I do a lot of cross-platform development on both the client and the
server-side.  In particular, I may develop on Linux , OS/2 or Solaris and
then deploy on OS/2, Win/98, WinNT, AIX, Solaris, Linux etc.  We have even
attempted to deploy to OS/390 mainframes; however, the Java in this
environment is pretty slow.  In all evironments, I always require JDK 1.3.

For any GUI development, Swing is your best chance of cross-platform
success.  Also, with regard to GUI's, you should always use layout managers
rather than any fixed placement of controls.  It used to be the case that
many GUI builders from the Windows world did not support layout managers.
However, I would hope that there has been progress in this area.  If you
use Swing and layout managers, then the big remaining problem is typcially
the fonts.  The Lucida font is shipped with JDK 1.3; and, thus, is
available on all platforms.  Typical Windows fonts like Arial are not.
If you use an IDE, then you need to have a good understanding of any
GUI code that it generates on your behalf.  In general, I have had only
minor problems developing GUI's in Unix and deploying in Windows.

On the server side and sometimes even on the client side, the biggest
problem is threading.    Generally, Java uses native threads; and threads
just operate somewhat differently on different platforms.   Wherever I have
encountered a serious problem, it is generally because I have a bug in my
threading logic which may show up more readily on one platform than
another.

In any case, it is important to do serious testing on the platform on which
you will deploy before you get your users involved if possible.  If you
leave all of the platform specific testing to the end user, then it will be
more difficult to fix problems.

Cynthia Jeness
AJUG Web Chair




Fernando wrote:

>         I've done the opposite (native OS Windows 2000 to testing on Red
> Hat Linux 7.2) and seen a tremendous difference in the GUI interface
> side.  Although the backend processing didn't need debugging as far as
> the coding, the GUI didn't have the same luck.
>         Through this affair developing an application, I realized that
> the "write once, run anywhere" philosophy is definitely more complex
> than it may seem.
>         When testing, you may think of using an IDE in Linux to debug
> any problems you may have.  Only reason is to save time.
>         I hope you have better luck than I did!
>
> BTW, both of the OS environments used SDK 1.3.0.
>
> Fernando Nieto
> fernando@usnsys.com
> US Network Systems
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: linda fan [mailto:lxfan_2000@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 10:44 AM
> To: ajug-members@www.ajug.org
> Subject: different testing OS
>
> Hi,
> Can anyone told me what is the harm by testing
> application on a Window machine and actual production
> is running on the Linux or unix OS beside the path and
> resources?
>
> Thanks a lot!
> Linda
>
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