• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
programming forums Java Mobile Certification Databases Caching Books Engineering Micro Controllers OS Languages Paradigms IDEs Build Tools Frameworks Application Servers Open Source This Site Careers Other Pie Elite all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
Marshals:
  • Campbell Ritchie
  • Jeanne Boyarsky
  • Ron McLeod
  • Paul Clapham
  • Liutauras Vilda
Sheriffs:
  • paul wheaton
  • Rob Spoor
  • Devaka Cooray
Saloon Keepers:
  • Stephan van Hulst
  • Tim Holloway
  • Carey Brown
  • Frits Walraven
  • Tim Moores
Bartenders:
  • Mikalai Zaikin

Installation statistics

 
Greenhorn
Posts: 11
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hey all,

I'm working on a big project right now and I've been programming to stay compatible with 1.4.2. While I would love to use generics and enums, I wish as many people to use my applet with the minimal fuss. Two things stand in the way of that:

1) Download of the JRE for those that don't have one.
2) Download of an update to JRE for those who aren't up to do.

I can't help 1). As it stand Java is the most popular web interface that allows local disk access (though IE7 in protected mode on Vista is potentially a big problem in this regard).

As for 2) I can try and use the oldest yet reasonably stable version of Java which is 1.4.2.

But I would like to try and assess the impact of 1) and 2) and try to plan for it. I have heard vague statistics from Sun. But is there an independant survey that can say that of a particular website..

1) x% don't have Java
2) x% have version 1.x

If anyone can shed light on this I would be grateful.

Cheers,

Jarrod

ps. Wasn't sure exactly where to post this... I hope this section is okay.
 
Rancher
Posts: 43081
77
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Well, what you're mainly interested is the statistics of your user population, not of the user population at large, correct? Depending on the kind of site you run those two could be significantly different. If you have control over the site, you could embed some JavaScript code that determines what plugins are installed, and submit that information back to the server. That would give you accurate statistics for your site. There's a page that does the client-side part of that on my site.
[ October 19, 2007: Message edited by: Ulf Dittmer ]
 
Jay Emm
Greenhorn
Posts: 11
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Originally posted by Ulf Dittmer:
Well, what you're mainly interested is the statistics of your user population, not of the user population at large, correct? Depending on the kind of site you run those two could be significantly different. If you have control over the site, you could embed some JavaScript code that determines what plugins are installed, and submit that information back to the server. That would give you accurate statistics for your site. There's a page that does the client-side part of that on my site.

[ October 19, 2007: Message edited by: Ulf Dittmer ]



Hi Ulf,

Firstly, thanks so much for replying Always welcome for whatever help I get from the community. You are right, I would eventually want a targetted survey of my particular demographic. And I will definately rummage through your collection to implement statistical logging when my site finally goes live.

Though its in my interested to appeal to as wide an audience as possible... in an ideal world I would want everyone using my website Which is why I would like to know some recent installation statistics are for JREs old and new just to get a feel.

By the sounds this knowledge isn't in the public domain or is somewhat of a taboo, but I think its vital for planning for the end-user experience... eg. how many people need to click on the get Java button; what's the best lowest common denominator version (I'd prefer people not to click); what percentage of people have DirectX accelerated swing components - do I design my UI to take advantage or just be fast on all or a combination of the two?

This may be all moot point if the Java kernel is as slim as its promise.

Jarrod
 
Ulf Dittmer
Rancher
Posts: 43081
77
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I'm not aware of any numbers for the net at large. My feeling -and I really have no hard facts to back this up- is that for applets it's best to stick with Java 1.4, as I still see quite a few people talking about not having Java 5. Taking that into account, it's going to be quite a while until I would want to rely on help from the kernel JRE (certainly not in 2008).
 
Jay Emm
Greenhorn
Posts: 11
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Originally posted by Ulf Dittmer:
I'm not aware of any numbers for the net at large. My feeling -and I really have no hard facts to back this up- is that for applets it's best to stick with Java 1.4, as I still see quite a few people talking about not having Java 5. Taking that into account, it's going to be quite a while until I would want to rely on help from the kernel JRE (certainly not in 2008).



Hi Ulf,

While it's not good that you've been picking up a vibe that 1.5+ take-up still isn't across the board, it's at least good to know that I'm not wasting my time by sticking to 1.4. I really do hope they hurry up with the kernel JRE though!

But thanks again for the advice

Cheers,

Jarrod
 
Don't get me started about those stupid light bulbs.
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic