Route 64 supports two different installation scenarios. The first one, a Java WebStart based installation, does not require a client side installation at all; code and required libraries are automatically downloaded from the internet on demand and cached by the WebStart client side. The advantage of this kind of installation is that WebStart automatically takes care for downloading and managing updates which includes dowload and installation of required system components like JDK and JavaHelp. The disadvantage of WebStart is that certain functionality of Route 64 is disabled when running under WebStart control. The most visible feature that is not available in Java WebStart is Drag and Drop loading.
The alternate option to install Route 64 is also not too complicated: Download Route 64 from the SouceForge download area. On the download page normally the last 5 release levels of Route 64 can be downloaded, normally you should select just the newest version. Store the downloaded file wherever you like. The file you got from the download is an executable jar file, i.e. it supports a simplified form of execution based on your operating system.
The simplest – and least comfortable – possibility to start Route 64 from the downloaded file is to use the following command line in a shell:
java -jar route64-<buildnumber>.jar
Note that the actual name of the jar file contains a version number. The full file name has to be specified on the command line. The more convenient possibility to start Route 64 uses the fact that on many operating systems the .jar file type is automatically tied to the execution of the Java virtual machine. If this is the case on your OS, then this means that you just have to navigate in your file manager to the dowloaded file and perform a double-click.
Installing Java on a Windows system results in the necessary file associations so that the above works, other operating systems should provide similar functionality. If you cannot get Route64 to run from your file manager, use the command line or WebStart as described above.
| Last modified: 2004/05/23 | Comments | Copyright © 2006 Michael G. Binz |