After replacing my IE6 with IE7, I noticed that a javascript on my own website was not working and discovered that I had to install Sun Microsystems Java installation (Version 6 Update 1) before IE7 would recognise the javascript on the website.

Is there any way to to overcome the problem for others using IE7 who have not already installed the Java plugin?
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This is hard to understand, although who knows what Microsoft thinks, or why.

Java is in no way, shape, or form, connected to Javascript, so the event you're describing can't actually happen. wikipedia - javascript:


This has been grounds for confusion for years, people assume that Javascript is in the same class or family as Java because of the name, but that's not the case.

Javascript is a client side programming language, which runs on the client, usually a web browser. The client receives the script code, and then runs it, or tries to, assuming the code is bug free.

It's basically the same as HTML in that way. You give it to the client, and the client does it.

Java, on the other hand, is a server side technology, with one exception, the fairly infrequent use of Java plugins on webpages. For those you need Java runtime environment installed on the system.

So what may have happened was that a page needed java runtime environment. Or it's some really weird MSIE 7 bug, or something else.

It's hard to say, but the one thing you can say is that Java is NEVER needed to execute Javascript, the languages are not related at all in terms of end users, they aren't the same type of language at all, they have pretty much nothing to do with each other except sharing the 4 letters 'java' in their names. There's some story about how that happened long ago, but I can't remember it. Technically, Javascript is known as Ecmascript, but that's another matter.

So the trick is to find out what made MSIE think that it needed to download Java, it's almost certainly something other than what you thought it was.
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That is very interesting and informative, especially when I'm not a student of Javascript. Thank you.

The fact is that I have a genealogical website which uses a program (written by someone more enlightened than myself ) to show a family tree 'dynamically'.
See: -
[link]

According to the writer, the program uses a 'Java Applet'.
Perhaps mistakenly I referred to 'javascript' - but I was concerned that my website would not be fully accessible for IE7 users without the latest Sun Java Plugin.
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Using java applets is not a particularly good idea since it's not default installed on most operating systems out there.

Unlike flash, which enjoys virtually complete market penetration, java doesn't. And the jre (java runtime environment) that java plugins require is a massive download, pretty much out of the question for dial up internet users, and a pain for others.

Basically, if you put up walls to users on your site, they will leave.

Java applets are fast falling into the legacy object options of the internet, flash is the way to go for anything interactive or that requires connecting to a database in real time.

So you have what you have. And if it requires the latest java to run it, it's even worse.

Although personally I dislike flash, I like it more than Java, for the above reasons, I want users to be able to use my sites, not to put up walls against that happening.

So you're stuck, you have this app, it does what it does, the simple fact that the author used java to make it already shows you all you need to know about the author, so you won't get anywhere in that direction. So that leaves you stuck with what you have, a learning experience I guess you'd call it, one of the mistakes we make when we are starting out, we all make them, and then we learn not to make them. And why.
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Thanks - I did have the feeling that nothing could be done if the originator didn't change his programme - but you have explained it fully.
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