Date   : Sun, 24 Jan 2016 00:32:45 -0000
From   : blip@... (Blip)
Subject: 5 minutes of your time please

 

Hi Rick / Daniel

 

Java has been a right pain in the ass recently, so I would be glad to see 
the back of it. It may be a bit last decade but it?s something I know that
is cross platform - actually I?ve seen a couple of major projects just rolled
out that depend on it, so the King is dead, long live the King etcetera.

 

Good call on the scripting, and to you Daniel on the content. It?s a fair
point that it?s an ICT and computing degree, and it has to solve a ?problem?.
I might not have defined that well enough.

 

Another list member suggested a memory tester that I think Watford supplied.
So perhaps I should be thinking of some kind of electronic interface that
could be put across certain components, like a multimeter.

 

Kind regards

 

 

 

John

 

From: bbc-micro-bounces+blip=blipit.com@... [mailto:bbc-micro-bounces+blip=blipit.com
at lists.cloud9.co.uk] On Behalf Of Rick Murray
Sent: Saturday, January 23, 2016 9:24 PM
To: bbc-micro@...
Subject: Re: [BBC-Micro] 5 minutes of your time please

 

Hi, 

 

If you make the diagnosis system work using some sort of scripting engine, 
it can be extended to cover new faults (consider bit rot of the PALs, exploding 
capacitors, or other faults that occur due to age that won't have been in
the service handbooks) plus the possibility of adding data for other members
of the Beeb family (Master [Compact]), Electron, FileStore, co-processor, etc.

 

I'm not asking you to include all of this, just the ability for it to be
added; and if so the result could be a useful diagnostic aid for the BBC
era machines.

 

I'm surprised you aren't considering writing an Android app. Java is losing
popularity on the desktop (too many security issues) and Dalvik (or whatever
Google is using these days) is basically a lightly bastardised Java.

God knows there are enough Android phones and tablets around, starting from
silly money up to Apple's price bracket...

 

Oh and before anybody says an Android app won't work on iOS, neither does
Java. ;-)

Some browsers have a partial JVM, but standard iThingies don't support Java.

 

Neither does Android, for that matter. You can get an app called JBED but
things get "interesting" if the app is not touchscreen aware and the phone/tablet
has no physical keyboard. ;-)

 

Java and Flash...they are last decade tech.

 

 

Best wishes, 

 

Rick.