Changed in 4.0:
Excelsior JET comes preconfigured for one of the recent J2SE versions, such as 1.5.0_04 (J2SE 5.0 Update 4.) /This is a microversion of the latest J2SE version which compliance test suite Excelsior JET has passed./ If your application can be run successfully on that particular version of the Sun JRE and does not require endorsed standards override, you can begin using Excelsior JET right after installation. If your application requires a different J2SE microversion or overrides endorsed standards, you also have to configure Excelsior JET accordingly before compiling your application. See Profiles for details.
The system requirements for Excelsior JET itself are as follows:
| CPU: | Intel Pentium III or compatible at 800 MHz or higher |
| RAM: | 384 MB minimum, 512 MB or more recommended for J2SE 5.0 projects |
| Disk space: | 420 MB minimum |
| Note: Creation of a new J2SE 5.0 profile requires up to 650MB extra for temporary use. | |
| Display: | The JET Control Panel and JetPackII graphical tools require display resolution of 1024x768x256c minimum (HiColor recommended). If such resolution is not available, the product may still be used in the command-line mode. |
| Operating system: | Microsoft Windows NT, 2000, XP, Server 2003, or 98 |
The system requirements for applications compiled by Excelsior JET are as follows:
| CPU: | Intel IA32 or 100% compatible, clock speed as if run on the respective version of the Sun JRE |
| RAM: | Most applications will need the same or somewhat lower amount of RAM as if run on the Sun JRE |
| Disk space: | A binary executable created by Excelsior JET in the default mode will occupy 2-4 times more disk space than the original jar file. It also requires the Excelsior JET Runtime (set of DLLs/shared objects and data files) to run, but does not require the Sun JRE. |
| Display: | Same requirements as if run on the Sun JRE |
| Operating system: | Excelsior JET 4.0 for Windows has passed J2SE 5.0 and 1.4.2 compliance tests on the following operating systems:
Windows 2000 Professional (SP4) |
| Windows 2000 Server (SP4) | |
| Windows XP Professional (SP1 and SP2) | |
| Windows Server 2003 |
Changed in 4.0:
Excelsior JET has been certified for compliance with versions 1.4.2 and 5.0 of the Java 2 Standard Edition specification and contains licensed code of these versions of the J2SE Platform API. As a result, applications compiled by Excelsior JET no longer require the Sun JRE to work, but the downside it that J2SE 1.3.x, 1.4.0, and 1.4.1 are no longer supported.
Note: Before starting installation on Windows NT, 2000, or XP, it is recommended that you log on with administrator authority.
Excelsior JET is distributed as a self-installing package. To begin installation, simply launch the EXE file you have downloaded or received on CD and follow the on-screen prompts.
After successful installation, the JET Setup program will be invoked automatically to let you configure Excelsior JET for a particular J2SE (micro)version required by your application (see Profiles.):
If your application works fine on the version of the Sun JRE indicated in the Use default profile option, simply click Finish. JET Setup will close and the JET Control Panel will open automatically unless you have unchecked the respective box.
Otherwise, select Create a new profile and click Next to proceed to the Profile Manager.
Before you begin using Excelsior JET for the optimization of your applications, you have to configure it for a particular microversion of the Java 2 platform. You do that using the JET Setup program, which is launched automatically at the end of the installation process. Later, you access it by selecting the JET Setup item from the Excelsior JET Start Menu folder.
What JET Setup essentially does is precompile Java platform classes for the particular J2SE microversion into a set of DLLs. It is important to note that if your application relies on the Endorsed Standards Override Mechanism, the overriding classes have to be precompiled instead of their counterparts shipped with the Java platform.
The set of Excelsior JET runtime files (DLLs with precompiled platform API classes, DLLs with native methods, and auxuliary files) for the given J2SE version and the given set of jars overriding endorsed standards is called a profile. You may create multiple profiles and switch between them according to your applications’ compatibility requirements.
Upon startup, JET Setup displays the main Profile Management screen:
Each item in the list of profiles contains a profile name, a status tag, and the names of jar files that contain classes overriding endorsed standards, if any were specified during profile creation / Moving the mouse over an item displays a tooltip with full pathnames of those jar files./ .
Profile names are based on respective J2SE version numbers, such as “1.5.0_04 (2)”.
Status tags have the following meanings:
To create a new profile, click New. The New Profile wizard shall display.
To change the active profile, select a profile marked as Ready, click Activate and click Close to exit JET Setup.
To refresh an Outdated profile, select it from the list and click Refresh. If recompilation of Java 2 platform classes is necessary, time and disk space estimations will be displayed. Make sure you have enough disk space, close all applications you do not need at the moment and click Next to begin compilation.
To make an outdated profile ready for use without refreshing it, use the Update Manager to rollback to the update level matching that profile.
To repair a Damaged profile, select it from the list and click Repair. If recompilation of Java 2 platform classes is necessary, time and disk space estimations will be displayed. Make sure you have enough disk space, close all applications you do not need at the moment and click Next to begin compilation.
To delete a profile you no longer need, select it from the list and click Delete.
To exit JET Setup, click Close. If no profile is marked Active, a message box shall display, urging you to activate a profile.
The wizard displays the list of exact J2SE versions supported by your Excelsior JET installation, such as 1.5.0_04:
If the desired version is not listed, you need to download the respective updates from Excelsior’s Web site, install them and restart JET Setup. Otherwise, select the J2SE version required by your application and click Next.
The Endorsed Standards Override screen shall display.
According to the Sun Microsystems documentation for Java 2 version 1.4 and above, endorsed standards are APIs included in the Java 2 Platform but defined through a process other then the Java Community Process. As a result, newer versions of such APIs may become available between Java 2 Platform releases. The Endorsed Standards Override Mechanism is the only “official” way for application authors to use such newer versions of endorsed standards in their Java applications (you may not use the BOOTCLASSPATH feature in a production enviroment.)
By default, the Sun HotSpot VM looks for jars with overriding classes in directories listed in the java.endorsed.dirs system property, which in turn defaults to the lib/endorsed subdirectory of the JRE directory.
For details, see Sun Java 2 SDK documentation.
After you select the J2SE version, JET Setup displays the Endorsed Standards Override screen:
If you are not sure whether the application you want to compile requires endorsed stanrds override, do the following:
Now choose one of the following options:
Also select this option if the property java.endorsed.dirs is set to an empty string.
The jars with endorsed standards will be picked up automatically and displayed in the listbox at the bottom of the screen.
Note: During profile creation, the jars will be copied to the Excelsior JET profile directory, so if you update the original jars or need to switch to a different set of jars with endorsed standards, you will have to create a new profile.
Click Next to proceed. The confirmation screen shall display.
Before creating, updating, or repairing a profile, JET Setup displays a confirmation screen:
Review your selections and click Next to proceed, or click Back if you need to make any corrections. The status screen with progress indicators shall display:
If compilation of Java platform API classes is required, the process may take from 20 minutes to 2-3 hours, depending on the J2SE version (1.4.2 or 5.0) and your system configuration.
Note: If the compilation process is too slow, disable local filesystem access monitoring in your anti-virus software. Do not forget to re-enable it after the compilation process ends.
Upon successful completion of a profile creation, refresh, or repair operation, the wizard shall display the following information screen:
By default, after you click Finish, JET Setup will activate the profile you have just created and close automatically, launching the JET Control Panel for you. To return to the main Profile Manager screen, clear the Start JET Control Panel checkbox and click Finish. To return to the main Profile Manager screen without activating the profile you have just created, clear the respective checkbox and click Finish.
Excelsior periodically issues updates to the Excelsior JET product which fix bugs, add support for the latest J2SE microversions and minor feature enhancements. The JET Setup tool includes an update manager that enables you to install and apply product updates, rollback to previous update levels and select custom combinations of updates.
The set of files constituting the product is split into logical components, such as compiler, runtime, graphical tools and utilities, samples, documentation, and so on. When a defect is resolved in one of the components, the engineering team may issue a hotfix containing the corrected version of that component.
Since components are dependent on each other, a hotfix may include two or more updated components, for instance, a fix in the compiler module that emits object files may require changes in the linker.
Hotfixes are always cumulative: a component included in a hotfix is built from sources containing fixes for all bugs addressed by previously issued hotfixes containing that component. This rule substantially simplifies update management.
Hotfixes are available on-demand. If you report a particular problem that is already resolved through a hotfix, the support team will email that hotfix to you.
A Maintenance Pack is essentially a hotfix for all components updated since the initial release of the given version of the product. Maintenance Packs are announced through mailing lists and are made available for download.
To minimize download size, any hotfix issued after the latest Maintenance Pack requires prior installation of that Maintenance Pack.
An update is distributed as an executable file. When run, it tries to determine the location of the respective version of Excelsior JET on your system. It then unpacks the files constituting the update into a special location inside the JET directory and invokes JET Setup to apply the update.
Note: Updates that make changes in the compiler and runtime are most likely to change the status of the Active and Ready profiles to Outdated. When applying such an update, JET Setup runs the Profile Manager automatically to let you update the existing profiles or create new ones. If you plan to install another update (e.g. a hotfix issued after the Maintenance Pack you just installed), click Close.
Once you have installed one or more product updates, you can rollback to any update level or return to the latest level at any time as follows:
Select Manage JET Updates in the Excelsior JET Start Menu. This will display the basic interface of the Update Manager:
It displays the current update level, such as “jet-400-mp1”. To move one step back or forth in your update installation history, click Undo or Redo respectively. Do that repeatedly until the desired configuration of updates is displayed as current and click Next. JET Setup will display the set of profiles available for the configuration you have selected to let you activate one of them, possibly after a refresh.
If an Excelsior support engineer has advised you to select a particular combination of updates, do the following:
Select Manage JET Updates in the Excelsior JET Start Menu, and click Advanced. This will display the advanced Update Manager interface:
Use checkboxes to select the combination of updates suggested by Excelsior Support and click Next.
Each time you install an update that invalidates the currently set up profiles, JET Setup backs up those profiles into a subdirectory of your Excelsior JET installation so as to enable rollback. Profiles occupy dozens of megabytes of disk space, so you may wish to remove profiles for update levels to which you do not plan to revert.
To remove backed-up profiles, run Manage JET Updates from the Excelsior JET Start Menu, click Advanced and then click Cleanup. This will display the list of profile backup directories:
Selecting a directory displays the description of the respective backup configuration. Click Cleanup to remove the selected directory and its contents. Click Close when you are done with cleanup.