JavaThread messege

I hope this is in the right forum. I'm in an introductory programming class using Alice. Recently I've tried to use Alice on my home PC, but have failed. After I extracted all of the .zip files, I tried to run th Alice.exe. A messege popped up saying it could not LoadLibrary jvm.dll. My instructor sent me that file, and then I tried to run Alice and a messege popped up that says: Can't Create Java VM. And thats where I'm stuck now. What do I do? I downloaded the latest java and retried but the same thing happened. Any Help?

Unfortunately, I can't help you to solve your problem, but you mentioned one thing that probably should be clarified. It is my understanding that you do not need to download and install any Java software other than the Java software that is already included in the zip file that you downloaded from CMU. However, I can't prove that because every computer that I have access to already has Java installed for other purposes so I don't have any way to load and run Alice on a computer that doesn't already have Java installed.

Before submitting this reply, I went to Google and entered the following "alice Can't Create Java VM" The first Google hit pointed to something in the Alice community archives regarding this problem. Here is an excerpt:

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dlnw
11-04-2006, 02:08 PM

I was able to run the program by running a file called IfAliceFailsTryThis.exe. This will do until I find the source of my problem.
----------------------------


I suggest that you search the Alice archives for the thread indicated above to see what other information you may find there.

PS: You should find the executable file mentioned by dlnw in the following directory:

C:\...\Alice\Required\IfAliceFailsTryThis.exe

You might try double-clicking on that file to see if it resolves your problem.

Originally Posted by DickBaldwin

... you do not need to download and install any Java software other than the Java software that is already included in the zip file that you downloaded from CMU. However, I ... don't have any way to load and run Alice on a computer that doesn't already have Java installed.

To follow up on Dick's comment, I have successfully installed Alice on four different PC's using only the files downloaded from the Alice site. None of those PC's had any other Java software installed at the time. All were running Windows XP - I've never tried with Vista or a non-Windows OS.

I'm definitely not a Java expert, but as far as I can tell, all that is required for Alice to run is the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). I have updated the Java software when I get an update available notification, and the current JRE I'm using is Version 6, Update 2. (I believe Gabe, the forum administrator, has also posted a message regarding the fact that only the JRE is needed.)

The "Readme" file that comes with the software contains the following description:

"The Java(TM) Platform, Standard Edition Runtime Environment (JRE) is
intended for software developers and vendors to redistribute with
their applications.

The Java SE Runtime Environment contains the Java virtual machine,
runtime class libraries, and Java application launcher that are
necessary to run programs written in the Java programming language.
It is not a development environment and does not contain development
tools such as compilers or debuggers. For development tools, see the
Java SE Development Kit (JDK(TM))."

You didn't mention what operating system you are running, but it might be that you need a newer version of the JRE than what comes in the basic Alice download - especially if you are using Vista. To be sure you have the most current version, you can go to the Java Control panel from the main Control panel, click on the "Update" tab and then on the "Update Now" button.

I may be wrong, but I seriously doubt that Alice will find and use the JRE that you download from Sun and install using the Java installer. Instead, it will attempt to use the JRE that is contained in the following directory:

C:\...\Alice\Required\jre1.3.1_10_win32\bin

Generally speaking, to cause Alice to find and use a JRE in some other directory would require a "windows install" or something like that to tell it where the JRE is located. I'm pretty sure that Alice expects the JRE to be in a fixed location relative to its root directory.

I suppose that it may be possible to copy the new JRE into the directory shown above, but I would generally recommend against that. Although Sun has been pretty good at maintaining backward compatibility, their record is not perfect, and the version 1.6 JRE may not be backward compatible with the Alice code, particularly since there have been so many updates between JRE1.3 and JRE1.6.

By the way, to a very close approximation, the term JRE is almost synonymous with JVM, or at least the JRE contains the JVM.

Dick Baldwin

Ok, what that means is that one of your java files is actually in the wrong place or they are not setup to execute upon request. So what i think you should do is add javai.dll into your execute path on Win32. and if that doesn't work, sorry i couldn't be of more assistance.

Dick is indeed correct that Alice uses the version of the JRE that is in the Alice/Required folder. When I moved "jre1.3.1_10_win32" to the desktop and then tried to start Alice, I got a jvm.dll missing error. (Not a recommended experiment, since to then get rid of the Alice welcome screen, I had to reboot.(

Does this mean Ping is correct that if you have a missing .dll, you have to put it in the Alice/Required/jre1.3.1_10_win32 folder, not the main Java folder, and does it also have to go even deeper in the directory hierarchy (most of the other .dlls seem to be in the bin folder)?

Also am I correct that even if Sun has made progress in fixing the "memory leak" problem with Java, we won't see that until the next formal release of Alice, since that will be the first time Alice's JRE will be updated? (I know Storytelling Alice uses a later version, but that's PC only and has quite a few other bugs.)

My belief is that unless you are prepared to perform major surgery on Alice, (which I'm not even sure is possible), you won't see any of Sun's Java updates in Alice until the release of Alice 3.0, except as you say, StoryTelling Alice uses jre1.5.x

There were major updates in the 1.4 and 1.5 releases of Java, not the least of which were a new focus subsystem (without backward compatibility) in 1.4 and generics in 1.5.

Dick Baldwin

If you did what I did, you just took the Alice folder out of the ZIP folder and stuck it somewhere, like your desktop. If you did, you should Extract it.

I couldn't figure out what the problem was since I had once installed it on this same computer and it had worked and then I uninstalled it and recently reinstalled it. I in fact searched for an answer and found this, but on realizing that I didn't have all the files other people were talking about, like "IfAliceFailsTryThis", so I knew I did something wrong. Now that I've extracted it, it works. Hopefully that'll work for you, too!