Tom, that is a very good question and a very tough question in deed. Some
thoughts as a first attempt to answer:
It would not feel right to me if OCF would try to solve a generic problem of how
to synchronize programs in different virtual machines. It would also not feel
right if OCF would try to mess with operating system calls that are not in the
list of function offered by every Java implementation on every platform.
(Although I admid that we commited the first sin in that direction already in
bringing "native Browser support" into OCF.)
A way around this problem is the approach suggested and practiced by the
colleagues from Sun. If I remember correctly it is called "UPI" but I don't
remember the meaning behind the acronym. Basically it is a setup where OCF is
used in a single server process that does all smart card accesses. All programs
needing smart card functions request the services from this one server process.
What bothered me with this approach is that the single process now is
responsible for controlling who is authorized to do what type of communication
with the smart card. Nevertheless it seems to be a solution to the problem you
brought up again.
Frank Seliger
IBM Pervasive Computing Division
Schoenaicher Str. 220, 71032 Boeblingen, Germany
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel. +49-7031-16-3142
[EMAIL PROTECTED] on 2000-01-22 00:54:56
Please respond to "Tom McKearney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
cc: (bcc: Frank Seliger/Germany/IBM)
Subject: [OCF] cross-JVM support?
Is there ever going to be a version of OCF that will support OS-level
mutexing so that multiple JVMs can run OCF apps?
I may have to dump OCF because of this.
It's a big limitation.
If you have 2 applications that need to hit the smartcard at the same time,
OCF can't do this. They have to be all in the same JVM.
What if you're running a Java App on your machine and you have a Netscape
browser window running?
You're running 2 JVMs and OCF can't handle that.
OCF needs to have an OS-specific extension that allows cross-JVM resource
mutexing so that it can handle multiple apps.
So, is there a plan to fix this?
Tom
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