This is a very brief note about using WebCOMAL with JAVA 1.3. We recently downloaded and installed the Java 2 Software Development Kit, Standard Edition, Version 1.3.0. This comes with an updated version of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE), version 1.3, which installed itself alongside version 1.2 in the folder "C:\Program Files\Javasoft\JRE\1.3\" on the hard drive. (You can download Java from the SUN website, see the main WebCOMAL article for details).

To get our little collection of COMAL Weblets working with the new JRE, we only needed to change one character in the batch file which launches the COMAL servlet! Our new batch file reads:

  @echo
  echo starting servlet server

  rem # clear environment
  set tmp=
  set temp=
  set prompt=
  set PATH=
  set CLASSPATH=

  rem # Set the complete path to a Java Runtime Environment 
  rem # This should be the location of .\bin\java.exe...
  rem # NOTE: omit trailing '\'!!!!
  SET JRE=C:\Progra~1\javasoft\jre\1.3
  SET LIB=%JRE%\lib

  SET CLASSPATH=.\java\classes;.\java\lib\jsdk.jar;%LIB%\rt.jar;%LIB%\jaws.jar;%LIB%\i18n.jar

  %JRE%\bin\java.exe -cp %CLASSPATH% comal.ServletServer -d .\java\classes -p 8080

This batch file, when run, started up the COMAL servlet just as before, only with JRE 1.3 instead of 1.2. Then we were able to run any of the COMAL weblets we had developed with JRE 1.2.

The only difference we have noticed so far is that the new COMAL servlet adds the word "null" to the end of every output file from a COMAL weblet. The word appears as the last line of the output file, and is displayed by the browser (MSIE5) on a line at the end of the output. We don't know why this is yet. When we find out, we'll let you know. If you find out first, please let us know .......