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Safari update breaking Java in Sage?

asked 2013-04-22 21:06:51 +0100

smbelcas gravatar image

Today none of my Mac-using students could get Jmol stuff to display in class---and when I tried to use the notebook I'd written for class, it would no longer display for me, either! We all got the error "You do not have Java applets enabled in your web browser, or your browser is blocking this applet. Check the warning message from your browser and/or enable Java applets in your web browser preferences, or install the Java Runtime Environment from www.java.com"

Of course, (1) I do have Java applets enabled in Safari (yes, I double-checked) and (2) I do have the most recent JRE installed (yes, I double-checked).

Everything was working fine last week after the latest JRE update... and the only thing that has changed since then is that Safari updated to 6.0.4. I'm wondering whether the new Java handling (case-by-case) is not being triggered by Sage and that's why we're not able to get Jmol to work.

Or, am I missing something else that will get Java to work?

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Just as a workaround, you can use `viewer=canvas3d` or `viewer=tachyon` to at least see 3D stuff (see [here](http://www.sagemath.org/doc/reference/plot3d/sage/plot/plot3d/base.html#sage.plot.plot3d.base.Graphics3d.show)) though of course this is less than ideal.

kcrisman gravatar imagekcrisman ( 2013-04-22 22:02:53 +0100 )edit

Have the "Click here" instructions been followed at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5648

rickhg12hs gravatar imagerickhg12hs ( 2013-04-23 07:08:48 +0100 )edit

Karl-Dieter, neither of those options works (in either Safari or Camino)---canvas3d generates a white box with a black border, and tachyon generates a fuzzy cube-frame. The Jmol non-interactive image is way better than either of these.

smbelcas gravatar imagesmbelcas ( 2013-04-23 12:50:05 +0100 )edit

canvas3d requires one to enable WebGL. Go in Safari to the "Develop" menu and click "Enable WebGL". See if that works - not that we have polished it very much, though it's pretty.

kcrisman gravatar imagekcrisman ( 2013-04-23 16:04:01 +0100 )edit

I can confirm that certain plots don't work with canvas3d. Regular plot of plot3d seems to work, but plotting vectors doesn't, nor "line".

kcrisman gravatar imagekcrisman ( 2013-04-25 23:41:32 +0100 )edit

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answered 2013-04-23 10:02:24 +0100

jonathan gravatar image

At this point all I can tell you is that Apple keeps changing exactly how Safari handles Java applets. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Things haven't been stable long enough for me to figure out what is going on. We are working on a live non-java 3-D viewer that I hope to have working in Sage this summer. Java is still faster and more responsive, but Apple and Microsoft seem to be trying hard to squash Java. I have not got a definite workaround at this point. You can try Firefox. What I know works is Chromium and FireFox under Linux, where you can actually install Java without the OS trying to override your settings. You can also try adjusting the security level to medium in the Java control panel. Some have had success with that.

Jonathan

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Thanks---Firefox does indeed work (at the moment). But it generates the error "You are using a Firefox/Mozilla browser on MacOS. Many people experience inconsistent behavior of the 3-D viewer or no images using this combination. It is recommended that you use Chrome (or another webkit browser) instead." I don't know whether it's Sage or Jmol generating the error; but certainly Chrome no longer works with Java! I do think it would be very useful for there to be a browser-independent option for Sage (maybe a way of doing standalone notebook windows?) because who knows what future browser changes will muck things up for Sage...

smbelcas gravatar imagesmbelcas ( 2013-04-23 12:42:52 +0100 )edit
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answered 2013-09-05 13:52:43 +0100

kcrisman gravatar image

I think that now I have an actual answer - see http://ask.sagemath.org/question/2149... and especially the part about Apple's versus Java's runtime stuff and going back to Apple's in the links in the second answer.

That said, Jonathan is totally right that Java on Mac is a moving target at best. See for instance this link about Chrome and Mac:

Java 7 and Chrome on Mac OS X Chrome does not support Java 7 on the Mac platform. A 64-bit browser (Safari or Firefox, for example) is required to run Java 7 on Mac OS X. 32-bit browsers such as Chrome do not support Java 7 on the Mac platform.

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Asked: 2013-04-22 21:06:51 +0100

Seen: 1,468 times

Last updated: Sep 05 '13