Orion

What is Orion?

Orion is a Java application (in the loosest sense of the word) whose purpose is to allow the navigation of source code in a fast and simple manner.

Why Orion?

This product has gone through several names. First it was 'Cruise'. This was the name of a broadly equivalent tool within IBM. Then it was 'Orion'. Then it temporarily became 'Hound', and finally it came back to Orion. I hope that the name is now here to stay - I have had enough of the rebranding effort!

Running Orion as a Java Applet

There are no special requirements to run Orion as an applet. You should contact your systems administrator who will ensure that a Orion server is available, and will provide a URL for you to use.

Note: Orion is a Java applet that uses Java 1.8 APIs. It is essential that your browser supports this fully. If you do not see the applet correctly, then you should consider upgrading your browser (and its Java Support) to the latest version.

Browser Support

In principal, the Orion applet can be run in any Web browser that that has JNLP support enabled. It has a pre-requisite of Java 8 or greater. There have been browser compatability issues in the past and the invocation of the applet has been completely revamped. It is now hoped that a reliable mechanism has been found. Orion (in its latest form) has been tested and runs successfully on:

Any problems concerning browser compatability should be reported to me.

Running Orion as a Java Application

Before running Orion as an application, you must have access to a tags file. See here for information about creating a tags file.

Orion usage is

java -jar lib/orion.jar <searchstring>

If Orion is started with no parameters, a welcome screen is displayed, and you can type a 'hunt' string at the bottom of the window.

If a search string is specified then the results of that search are displayed.