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Java Desktop
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The goal
The Java Desktop project is supposed to deliver an X11/SDL desktop (including a pure java window manager) and a windows shell replacement with a single codebase.
The applications running "inside" the desktop should either be isolated from each other (JSR 121) or they should be signed and well-behaved applets written for this desktop (e.g. subclasses of a special DesktopApplet).
Update: Sun has released a Linux distribution called Java Desktop. I'll probably have to change the project name ;-)
Javadocs
Existing and non-existing Libraries
- Desktop icons will be rendered by Apache Batik.
- A filesystem for the Java Desktop: JVFS
(using
JXTA,
WebNFS,
JCIFS,
FSP,
CVS
(a NetBeans filesystem))
Update: There's a Apache VFS now, which may be exactly what I wanted.
Update: No, it isn't.
- The default look and feel should, obviously, be OpenLook.
- A TinyAWT (a minimalistic AWT to support SWING) based on SWT might be fun. Update: R. Rawson-Tetley implemented just that: SwingWT.
- A TinyAWT (or even a full AWT) for SDL would be a good idea. There already is a
sdljava library, which would probably be a good foundation. Project is here.
- A scrollable desktop pane:
Amiga Research Operating System: www.aros.org
- Netx, an implementation of the Java Network Launching Protocol (JNLP).
- A pure Java XServer: WeirdX (which might be useful for the X11 window management stuff).
- Puppet: a simple window manager written in Java.
- An EsounD re-implementation in pure Java: JEsd.
The filesystem
The JVFS filesystem will only be available to java applications initially.
An LD_PRELOAD library for non-Java applications that fakes mountpoints and
redirects all calls to the mounted java filesystem is left as an exercise
to the reader (possible solutions are
fuse,
lufs,
virtualfs,
podfuk,
plasticfs).
Other alternatives to create a user space filesystem for the desktop:
More vaporware: non-existing desktop applets.
Credits
Author: Bernhard Fastenrath
