Problems with new Java Update from Apple?

Have you had any reports of problems with the latest Java update from Apple? Things just haven't worked as well in MarviNSketch since I updated. I downloaded another, more recent Java update from the Apple developers' site, and things have imporved, but they're not quite where they were. I get loading and freezing problems more frequently than I used to do.

Hello Bob,


Could you give us more details? What are the problems exactly? What has improved ... compared to which version of Java and Safari?


Which Marvin version are you using?


Thanks for the feedback,


Tamas

I'm using Safari 1.2.3 on MacOS 10.3.5. My problems started with the Java 1.4.2 Update 1 and have continued through Update 2. Here's what Apple says at the developers' site:

Quote:

Java 1.4.2 Update 2 Final Candidate This update is targeted at a limited set of regressions introduced by Java 1.4.2 Update 1. As this seed is a final candidate, there will be a limited feedback time of one week. The intent of this seed is to allow developers to test their products and to notify Apple of any new regressions between Java 1.4.2 Update 1 and Java 1.4.2 Update 2. There are no updated developer tools for this release.

Various problems have occurred with both Marvin 3.3.3 and Marvin 3.4.3. Sometimes the applet doesn't complete loading. Sometimes it freezes in the middle of loading, so only part of the drawing tablet appears. (These errors became less common after I emptied the cache and rebooted.) When I load MarvinSketch repeatedly in the course of a session, I get an out-of-memory error after ca. 5-10 loads, and I need to quit Safari for MarvinSketch to work again. (Previously I didn't get this error.)





I know Jmol users had some LiveConnect problems with Update 1 (something about an "assertion error"). Update 2 has largely fixed those problems but introduced some others. That, and my performance problems, are why I'm asking if you noticed problems with MarvinSketch.

I hope that these bugs will be fixed by the official release of Java 1.4.2 Update 2. I cannot test it at the moment because if I upgrade to the release candidate then I can not downgrade later so we would loose the opportunity to test Marvin with the latest official release of Java (presently Java 1.4.2 Update 1) under OS X. (We are considering ways to solve this problem.)





A memory leak and a potential deadlock issue was fixed in Marvin 3.4.3.





I know only about one problem with Marvin 3.4.3 and Java 1.4.2 Update 1 (and all Java versions since 1.4.1): Pasting structures from the clipboard doesn't work. I reported this to Apple, and as far as we know they are taking care about the problem.

I find that if I try to load Marvin 3.4.3 for the first time in a session, and the applet is displayed within a frame (in EPOCH-SI), it doesn't finish loading, and I can never get it to work. However, if I first go to a page where Marvin is displayed pretty much all on its lonesome, it loads OK, and then if I go into EPOCh-SI, it loads OK thereafter. Go figure.





I'm not competent enough to figure out whether this problem is specific to Marvin or applies to all applets. I hope the Update 2 will solve all these problems.

FYI, the latest Security Update from Apple seems to have fixed the loading problems I was having with MarvinSketch. Thank goodness.