Hi,
The purpose was to send you more detailed description of the additional
GUI tool and to hear your comments on it:) I have already applied for
jar tool and it is rather too late to send application for another one.
Cheers,
Tomek
Alexei Fedotov pisze:
Hello Tomek,
This is an interesting letter, though I feel that I miss the purpose
of the post. If Mark asked you to use a mail list for discussing
technical details, this was a good start. If you want to convince Mark
to be your mentor, then it worth asking him which tools he believes
are worth to be developed.
Thanks!
On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 1:29 AM, Tomek Maciejewski
<[email protected]> wrote:
Hi,
I have got an email from Mark that it was not your intention to propose jar
tool as a part of GSoC program, because of the simplicity of this task. I
agree with you that it is quiet simple task, maybe too simple ;-) However I
was asked to provide some detailed information about the GUI tool I was
intended to provide (as an addition to console one). I have written down
some major functionality of such interface. I must mention that you can find
some of the descriptions not complete, that's because I have planned it
earlier, only as a small addition and haven't had enough time to create a
coherent vision. I would like to know what do out think about it? Will
Apache Harmony benefit from such kind of tool? Or maybe it is completely
unnecessary? ;)
This tool would consist of two main parts: file navigator and main
window. As a file navigator I understand the directories tree, as a main
window - the normal window to display files (similar to the one from "My
computer", etc.). There would be also some toolbar and some menu. Below, you
can find major use cases I have thought about:
1. Creating JAR file
This is one of the basic functionalities. User will be able to select proper
file and directories he wants to pack into archive. Then he will choose
'Create JAR' option from menu or toolbar. The settings window will appear
and user will be able to specify several options, like:
- Name and location of output file
- JAR index creation (yes/no)
- JAR signing settings
- Set Manifest and entry point values
- Create optional JAD descriptor
2. Listing JAR file
When user marks the JAR file in navigator, he will see its content (included
files and directories) in main window, and will be able to navigate through
it.
3. Extracting from JAR
Extracting process will be similar to the JAR listing. But, user will be
able to mark whole JAR or just a subset of included resources, and choose
"Extract from" button. He will be also able to specify desired location.
4. Updating the JAR file
User will be able to drag&drop additional files to JAR archive or remove the
existing ones. It will be also possible to change Manifest, generate or
remove index or sign a JAR.
5. Find class in JAR
GUI will provide option to search existing JAR files for some specified
class. User will select JARs and specify name of the class he want to search
for. If program finds the specified class, it will notify user about its
location.
6. JAR repositories
The last functionality will be possibility to group JAR files into JAR
repository. User will be able to create one or more virtual repositories
aggregating JAR archives. Such solution will be quiet comfortable for end
users, and will also provides fast way to search JARs for specified class,
because it will be possible to invoke search on logic repository (all JARs
in repository).
Summing up, I think that for some cases console interface (like the one
provided by Sun) is slightly better, especially if you are familiar with it.
But there exist some cases where additional GUI tool can make difference.
The most popular case is when you want to integrate functionality of several
tools like jar, jarsigner, jar preverification tool etc. The next advantage
is possibility to save your preferred settings to reuse them in future (like
information about JAR repositories). Additionally GUI may be a good start
point for users, who start with Java. In Sun's JVM you can find several GUI
tools, like jconsole or visualvm. Of course these tools are little
different, and it would be hard to imagine console version of visualvm ;-)
But it is commonly known that GUI tools are quiet attractive for people
(more than console).
Cheers,
Tomek
