Re: [gentoo-desktop] Current best practices for java and gentoo

[Algardas]

> To make java work correctly with most websites, just exactly which one
> should a person emerge and use?

If the java version you choose has the nsplugin use flag (most if not all have it), and you merge it with the use flag set, all applets (websites with java) not needing a newer version of java should work. I haven't seen any websites, which would need anything newer than the currently stable 1.5 series.

For normal use, you can just do 
	emerge sun-jdk
and don't worry about java anymore.

Of course, there are more kits to choose from (it is gentoo, after all), namely:
blackdown-jdk
diablo-jdk			diablo-jre-bin
ibm-jdk-bin			ibm-jre-bin
jrockit-jdk-bin
sun-jdk				sun-jre-bin

and they all differ in licensing and implemented features (and size), but if you don't know about them - you don't need them, because sun-jdk/sun-jre-bin is fine for normal desktop use.

As for -jdk and -jre, jdk (Java Development Kit) is needed for compiling programs (and provides all the files jre (Java Runtime Environment) would provide). So if you do not compile java programs, you can get -jre packages. BUT one shouldn't forget that there must (well, maybe should) be a jdk-1.4 in your system, because gentoo (emerge) uses 1.4 versions to compile packages.

So, in short and at the time of writing, one could normally have
	=dev-java/blackdown-jdk-1.4.2.14
for emerge and
	=dev-java/sun-jre-bin-1.5.0.11
for the browser plugin. You can also be fine with the first one only, or you can have many different versions for different users (see below) etc. etc.

>  Also, is it safe to have more than one version installed at the same time?

Yes, you can have as many as you want (this is what gentoo java project, the script java-config and java generations is all about). Just don't forget setting the default one correctly.

-- 
Algardas
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