Improve ami packaging

[remkop]

Investigate the jpackage tool that is included in Java 14.

From the documentation:

The jpackage tool packages a Java application into a platform-specific package that includes all of the necessary dependencies. The application may be provided as a collection of ordinary JAR files or as a collection of modules. The supported platform-specific package formats are:

• Linux: deb and rpm
• macOS: pkg and dmg
• Windows: msi and exe

It may be possible to add this to the Maven build, with plugins like jlink-jpackager-maven-plugin.

[petermr]

That sounds great. I have no problems in jumping to Java14. We have no production code we have to worry about. And this is a great way of learning. BTW @remkop and @gilad Denneboom feel free to add Java8-14 idioms where they make sense. I'll try to learn. One area that is likely to be useful is `optional` because unexpected `null` s are very common .

…

On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 3:46 AM Remko Popma ***@***.***> wrote: Investigate the jpackage tool that is included <https://openjdk.java.net/jeps/343> in Java 14. From the documentation: The jpackage tool packages a Java application into a platform-specific package that includes all of the necessary dependencies. The application may be provided as a collection of ordinary JAR files or as a collection of modules. The supported platform-specific package formats are: - Linux: deb and rpm - macOS: pkg and dmg - Windows: msi and exe It may be possible to add this to the Maven build, with plugins like jlink-jpackager-maven-plugin <https://github.com/agilhard-oss/jlink-jpackager-maven-plugin>. — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#17>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAFTCS2PMGIK2EHFLA2ZHLDRKFKSHANCNFSM4LXFSSWQ> .

-- Peter Murray-Rust Founder ContentMine.org and Reader Emeritus in Molecular Informatics Dept. Of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK

[remkop]

If NPE's are a common problem, then just running the program on Java 14 will help, since they introduced "helpful NullPointerExceptions" that look something like this

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException: 
        Cannot assign field "i" because "a" is null
    at Prog.main(Prog.java:5)

instead of the "old" way, which looked like this:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
    at Prog.main(Prog.java:5)

[petermr]

Great! we'll move to Java14. I'll also gradually try to clean up tests but it's a long process.

…

On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 10:35 AM Remko Popma ***@***.***> wrote: If NPE's are a common problem, then just running the program on Java 14 will help, since they introduced "helpful NullPointerExceptions <https://openjdk.java.net/jeps/358>" that look something like this Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot assign field "i" because "a" is null at Prog.main(Prog.java:5) instead of the "old" way, which looked like this: Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException at Prog.main(Prog.java:5) — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#17 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAFTCS6VTMFDZ3XVX43WJ7DRKG2OXANCNFSM4LXFSSWQ> .

-- Peter Murray-Rust Founder ContentMine.org and Reader Emeritus in Molecular Informatics Dept. Of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK

[remkop]

Closing, since with the work on #24 and #51 we now have a publishing pipeline that results in a zip/bz2 archive with launcher scripts and required jars. Artifacts are hosted by GitHub Packages: https://github.com/petermr/ami3/packages/

The equivalent jpackage solution would include a (minimized) version of the JRE. This would add another 30-40MB to the download, but would allow users to run ami without installing Java.

For our current purposes, our current solution is sufficient.