A hint about Jar-files

[Abaris]

I posted this to the LimeWire forum but I found that it is also true for Phex 0.5.1. Konrad told us that the new XML functionality caused a change in the way Phex is started. I believe the reason for this startup change is the fact that he has splitted phex into multiple jar-files. However, if you just include these two lines in the phex.jar's Manifest File:

Class-Path: crimson.jar jaxp.jar xalan.jar
Main-Class: phex.f

then Phex could be run on every platform that has a JRE 1.2 or higher installed by just typing "java -jar phex.jar". On Windows and Solaris you could run phex.jar by clicking on it just like any native executable. On Windows, you can create shortcuts to Phex by just dragging phex.jar to the Desktop with the right mouse button and select "create shortcut". Why do you make things so complicated? Noone needs to run "StartPhex.class" or to type "java -cp phex.jar;crimson.jar;jaxp.jar;xalan.jar phex.f". I tried it on my machine and it works. Having seen things like "StartPhex.class" or "RunLime.class", I really wonder if anyone has actually read the Jar-Specification. You should not use classes outside their archives since java 1.1 was released.

Glad to see someone feels like I do. I've made that same recommendation, and even added to the feature list at sourceforge, but it seems like they are to busy to notice, or its not a big deal to them. Its a simple and quick fix (assuming their still using ant to build), I even pointed to the file to change.

[konrad_h]

Well, we implemented this in the latest release (0.5.2). Thanks for this solution, it really helped and made Phex a lot more usable for non java-pros.

Thanks again,
Konrad