Hi All - I've been following the recent thread regarding Linux and wanted
to drop in with a few thoughts and my 2 cents. In no particular order:
First off, MapXtreme Java edition is rock solid on Linux. I'm running it on
my laptop right now with the jdk 1.1.7 from BlackDown
(http://www.blackdown.org/). VERY STABLE! They now have jdk 1.2 ready for
download as well.
Next, you don't need to know Java to develop applications with MapXtreme
Java edition (MXTJ). Margie commented that she has stayed away as it looked
like Java would be difficult to learn. I hear this from a lot of customers,
and the analogy I usually make is that you don't need to be a C++ developer
to develop MapX/MapXtreme applications. C++ is the language used by MapInfo
to develop the component (MapX), but the component can be used with any
development tool that can deal with an OCX (Visual basic, Delphi,
Powerbuilder, HahtSite, ColdFusion ... and C++). Likewise, Java is the
language used to develop the core components that make up MXTJ, but you
certainly don't have to use Java to develop your applications. Any
development tool can be used that can deal with a Java component - the list
is huge! (Cafe, Bean machine, silverstream, Netscape App Server, Oracle
AppServer, Net Dynamics, Hahtsite...)
MapXtreme Java edition is only the first product to be released from
MapInfo based on our versatile Java technology. We have a number of things
brewing, including a series of Java beans (think components, like MapX.
Beans are to the Java world what ActiveX objects are to the windows world)
that will make building desktop mapping applications that will run anywhere
as easy as building a Visual Basic app with MapX!
OK, back to Linux. For those of you who get the Ziff Davis channel, ZDTV,
you may be familiar with 'The Screensavers'. I must confess, I'm a regular
viewer. It's like ESPN for geeks :-) Anyway, Kate and Leo convinced me that
Linux wasn't rocket science, and to try it out. (Here's a nice Linux guide
at ZDTV: http://www.zdnet.com/zdtv/screensavers/linux/) Weekend Project -
Make my laptop dual boot Linux and install MapXtreme Java edition. For
those who wish to try it out, Here's my diary. And don't be timid - it's
really quite straight forward. My only prior Linux experience was getting
the 68k version installed and almost running on my amiga some years ago, so
I'd put myself in the novice category.
1. If you have a machine that you want to dedicate to linux, skip this
step. If you have an existing NT/95 machine that you want to dual boot
Linux, you need this step. You need to create a new partition on your
harddisk for Linux. I picked up a copy of Partition Magic at CompUsa for 50
bucks to make this step a no brainer, but there are shareware equivilants.
Partition Magic is nice in that it can cut out a chunk of free space from
an existing partition, format the new partition as Linux, and shrink the
other partition down all in one step. In my case, I had a 5 gig NTFS
partition on my laptop, 3 gigs were free. I told Partition Magic to make me
a 1 gig linux partition and a 200 meg 'Swap' partition (for Linux virtual
memory). Also, I told Partition magic to mark it as a 'Primary' partition.
This makes your life easier during the next step.
2. Install Linux. If you're hard core, you can download the source and
compile it yourself, but I took the easy way out and went with a commercial
distribution. I strongly recommend doing the same, unless you have some
experience in this area. There are a number of commercial Linux
distributions around, I went with Red Hat's for 35 bucks. Nice install
manual. Also, Red Hat adds a lot of value in making the install completely
painless. I told my bios to boot from the CDROM, stuck the disk in and
booted, answered some simple install questions, and waited for the install
to complete. This really impressed me. The install autodetected and
configured absolutely EVERYTHING in my system, including my PCMCIA modem
and ethernet card!!
3. Configure LILO. This is the LInux LOader. You can do this as part of the
install (I did) or later from within Linux). When your system is powered
up, LILO will be run before any OS is booted. You have the option
specifying the OS to boot at that time. I configured LILO to start NT by
default, and Linux as an option.
4. Start Linux and create yourself an account. If you don't have any Unix
experience, the Red hat install guide explains how. Start X windows with
the startx command.
5. start netscape and go to BlackDown's website to get a Java VM. Download
and install it. Instructions are at the BlackDown site. Very straight
forward install.
6. Download MapXtreme Java edition from
http://testdrive.mapinfo.com/mapxtremejava There are 2 archives in the
download area that you will want. The main archive contains the software
and sample applications. a separate maps archive contains some sample TAB
files in the event you don't have any map data. The MapXtreme Java edition
installer is a java application itself. Launch it from the command line
like this:
jre -cp install.zip install
You should be in the directory where you downloaded the archive to before
executing that command. The graphical interface will start up and guide you
through the install. Very straight forward.
7. Time to finally make some maps. Remember, you don't need a web server at
all. Start the Mapxtreme server from the command line. Here is a smaple
command line - substitute the path's that are appropriate for your install:
jre -cp /opt/mapinfo/server:. com.mapinfo.mapxtreme.MapXtremeApp -c
/opt/mapinfo/server/MapXtremeApp.cfg -s /opt/mapinfo/server/Security.cfg -a
/opt/mapinfo/server/AppSupport.cfg -debug
Now you can run any client application that has the MapJ object in it. Our
MapXtreme administrator is one such application. It is a Java application
with a GUI for setting up some preferences for the server. It also allows
you to load geoset's and tab files. A command line to start this
administrator would look something like this:
jre -cp
/opt/mapinfo/server/ThirdParty/symantec/symbeans.jar:/opt/mapinfo/server:.
com.mapinfo.mapxtreme.admintool.MXTJAdmin
go to the 'Map' tab of the administrator. load world.gst, and in a second
or two you'll be looking at an interactive map of the world. Congrats. And
in my case it was still Saturday!
Next up, you may want to have a look in the samples/java directory of your
installation. There you'll find a standalone Map viewing application
complete with source code. You can either run it as is, or edit the .Java
source file, customize the app, and re-compile. Hmm. It's a map viewer of
sorts. Loads geosets and tabs. Runs anywhere. Wasn't there a recent thread
like this on the MI-L?
Best of luck Linux heads. Hope to see you all at MapWorld this year. Hey,
any interest in a Linux Sig?? Let me know. If there's enough interest, I'll
try to set something up in addition to the already scheduled MapXtreme Java
sessions.
Steve Lombardi
Product Line Director - Web Products
MapInfo Corp.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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