About the Key's (normal) Slow Start-Up

This page last modified on 15 September, 2006

The Key itself is a collection of 4 smallish data files which are used by the Lucid3 Player program. The Player is a program compiled in the Java programming language to run in a Virtual Machine (program in the native language of your computer which imitates the operation of a Java computer).  The reason for doing it this way is that Lucid3 Keys can be run not only on computers running Microsoft Windows, but also on the Apple Macintosh, on Linux, and on Solaris systems. This Portability brings the benefit that a wider community of participants can share in the use of (and collaborate in development of) a key of common interest world-wide via the Web. Use of the Virtual Machine makes the Player run just slightly slower than it might were it developed specifically for use on Windows or Macintosh or ...  But on most computers manufactured and sold recently, the Player will run fast enough that speed is not an issue.

So why does it take 30 to 60 seconds for the Player to open the Key in three stages?

• First, the Java run-time environment (i.e. the Virtual Machine) has to start up. This typically will be accompanied by a blank white screen with no indication at all that anything is happening.
• Second, the Player (Java program) must be downloaded from the Web, and start running. The screen will still appear mostly blank, except for a thin rectangular border that fills your Browser window.
• Third, the Player must then open the data files of the Key before it can display the initial Start-Up screen of the Key itself.  During the relatively short time this should take, a small pop-up window will display the progress in opening each of the data files. 

After this slow start-up interval, the Player depends on additional information from the Web only when you click an icon requesting a supporting page, such as a Profile page, or a Jepson Manual (TJM) description page. Otherwise, the Key operates quickly as a program running locally on your own computer.

-- Ken Bowles