Java is alive and kicking,
November 5, 2001 8:52 PM   Subscribe

Java is alive and kicking, and this guy knows what to do with it. Check out his sexy alife experiments (art? science?) and this goofy game. (Warning: his stuff crashed my browser a couple of times, but was worth it. Most applets are available for download.)
posted by grumblebee (14 comments total)
 
The game is not yet finished and escape is currently impossible.

That's certainly what I look for in a game. Just like real life.
posted by LeLiLo at 9:09 PM on November 5, 2001


Gross generalization ahoy :

Server side java gooood.
Client side java baaaaad.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:49 AM on November 6, 2001 [1 favorite]


"The game is not yet finished and escape is currently impossible."

That's certainly what I look for in a game...


Anarchy Online anyone?
posted by Dark Messiah at 4:25 AM on November 6, 2001


Simplicity works best for me, I enjoyed the 'little experiments' here...
posted by Icestorm at 4:53 AM on November 6, 2001


wow

impressive stuff
posted by sikander at 5:38 AM on November 6, 2001


"Java is alive and kicking" ... "warning: his stuff crashed my browser a couple of times, but was worth it."

Java applets in a nutshell.
posted by geir at 5:57 AM on November 6, 2001


I havn't had any problems with these.

Java has far, far more potential then flash. Unforunetly, most people seem to have gone for the 'easier' route with flash. Oh well.
posted by delmoi at 7:35 AM on November 6, 2001


Why doesn't complex Java ever work right in Netscape 4.7x?
posted by krebby at 7:46 AM on November 6, 2001


man, you guys are tough.

didn't you see the awesome classic arcade games java engine last friday?
posted by lescour at 7:49 AM on November 6, 2001


Java has far, far more potential then flash. Unforunetly, most people seem to have gone for the 'easier' route with flash. Oh well.

Shockwave has more potential than Flash too (although increasingly less so), but theres GOOD reasons to avoid both... (Shockwave is a big ass plug in with a smaller install base, takes longer to load), Java Applets have versioning problems with the JVMs on client machines, they are universally crash prone. Moreover, while you could write a vector graphics library in an applet, there isn't a native one well optimized for speed AFAIK.

Besides with Flash 5 Actionscript and XML support, Flash's potential is mostly untapped, and its much more reliable than Java Applets.

PS. Like the other guy said, we're talking about Client Side Java here being a mess, Server Side Java (as in .jsp) is actually pretty great.
posted by malphigian at 7:50 AM on November 6, 2001


Krebby: nothing ever works right in netscape 4.7x
posted by Hackworth at 8:05 AM on November 6, 2001


"Moreover, while you could write a vector graphics library in an applet, there isn't a native one well optimized for speed AFAIK."

If you use Java3D (even for 2D graphics) there is.

As far as that other Java sux/Flash r0x arguments - can you do much in the way of actual computation in Flash? Can you do OO programming? i'm trying to troll or anything, just never developed any flash stuff before.
posted by badstone at 9:33 AM on November 6, 2001


As far as that other Java sux/Flash r0x arguments - can you do much in the way of actual computation in Flash? Can you do OO programming? i'm trying to troll or anything, just never developed any flash stuff before.

Its got a full implementation of ECMAScript (about as good as IEs), which means you can do admittedly somewhat-hacky but perfectly serviceable OOP-like programming. Everything you'd want, unless you're wed to typed languages. Also, the XML messaging support makes tying it in with more complex server side apps a pleasure.

3d isn't much of an option (no drawing primatives from script, so it involves a massive hack with triangle shaped movie clips), but for pretty much any dynamic 2d interface I'd say nothing else (Shockwave, Java Applets) even comes close.
posted by malphigian at 9:43 AM on November 6, 2001


Flash and Java (in the browser) both allow all sorts of people to do what they usually couldn't do in a browser, create animated vector graphics and write entire programs respectively. Both technologies allow professionals to create some truly amazing things and allow amatuers to create some truly horrid things. Bad Flash assaults the senses and bad Java applets assualt the browser and sometimes the entire OS.

Its a shame that little animated things were the first Java applets developed, Flash is so much better at that. It is telling, however, that Macromedia has developed a Flash (v2) player in Java...
posted by mutagen at 11:02 AM on November 6, 2001


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