[Laurens]

Originally Posted by hacker

I've tried the original Sunrise, and now the 0.2 version, and both fail to get through the first document I've created (the online copy of the FreeBSD handbook, if anyone is curious =). I've tried it under 2000, XP, and 2003, all with the latest service packs and patches installed. It gets about 80% of the way through (grinding the machine to an absolute halt), then throws a Java exception (org.eclipse.swt.SWTException, Failed to execute runnable (java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Argument cannot be null)), and the whole thing closes itself. Nice.

This happens because the VM is running out of memory. The high memory usage is a pervasive problem in the core JPluck library that dates back to the very first release (which I hacked together for fun) and it cannot be fixed without rewriting the library from scatch. Anyway, this issue makes Sunrise unsuitable for converting very large Plucker documents, but typical web content converts fine. (The conversion library for my own viewer has been designed with low memory consumption in mind from the start, so no problems there.)

All the same, I will add an option so that you can configure the maximum amount of memory that the VM can allocate. Currently, it's fixed at 128Mb, which should be plenty for typical documents. I had to push it over 300Mb for the FreeBSD document to convert, which only goes to show how flawed the core JPluck library really is. For the sake of comparison: when I convert the FreeBSD document to my own viewer's format, the memory usage spikes at 30Mb.

Originally Posted by hacker

But the UI looks fairly nice. Unfortunately it uses SWT. Most Java professionals will tell you to stay miles away from that if you ask them, because it is implemented with native binaries, thus destroying Java's portability (more here). SWT is no more responsive than well-written Swing.

Most Java professionals who have spent a significant amount of time with Swing will acknowledge that for many applications Swing just doesn't cut it. Swing apps use more memory, start up slower and simply aren't as responsive as native UIs. Java's bad reputation for being slow and sluggish rests solely with Swing. believe SWT gives Java a second chance on the desktop. Just witness the surge in popularity of Eclipse and the declining usage of NetBeans, for example, or look at the huge popularity of something like Azureus. Anyway, numerous SWT vs. Swing flame wars have been fought and there's no need to start one here. Both technologies have their merits and drawbacks.

Originally Posted by hacker

I can't reveal our plans, but Sunrise will have a huge amount of healthy competition very soon, and the JPluck codebase will be retrofit, renamed, and relicensed to allow a lot more contributors to help out with the new project.

Good luck, you'll need it. I know the JPluck code inside out (I wrote all of it) and I honestly believe you're better off starting from scratch. Really, I'm not saying that out of spite.