More open-source capabilities for Java on the desktop

The Tiger release of Java just blew me away, but I'm always looking for even more ways to create portable Java applications that integrate really well with native desktops. Well, here's another one to add to that starter set of desktop Java components I described earlier.

Janel is a native Windows executable that launches your Java application jar using the JRE, classpath and other parameters described in a text properties file.

Two cool aspects to this approach:

1. Users launch a regular native application that could have it's own icon.
2. You don't have to write a batch or command file.

Now it would be really nice if Janel was available for other platforms (how hard can it to port the Win32-related code to Unix/X11?) and it would be even better if Netbeans could create a base Janel configuration file for you (the file may need to be modified at install time just to pick up a specific installed JRE). Then you could forget about writing platform-specific launch scripts for your Java applications, and commercial apps would no longer need their own launcher executables.

One tiny feature request: it would be nice if Janel had a configuration option to display a splash screen image (one that doesn't stay on top).

(2004-11-03 11:35:02.0) Permalink