Sun JVM works, Microsoft VM gives an error

Question

I've got this applet:
import java.awt.*;
import java.applet.Applet;
import java.net.*;
import java.io.*;
public class Standen
extends Applet {
private URL sourceFile;
private BufferedReader inFile;
private String lines="";
public String getScores(String bestand) {
try {
     sourceFile = new URL(getCodeBase(), bestand);
getFile();
     getMostRecent();
catch (Exception ex) {
return "";
return lines;
private void getFile() throws Exception {
URLConnection link = sourceFile.openConnection();
inFile = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(link.getInputStream()));
lines = "";
String line = "";//lezen van bestand
do {
if (line != "") {
          line = line.trim();
lines = lines + line + "\n";
line = inFile.readLine();
while (line != null);
inFile.close();
private void getMostRecent() {
     String term = "<mostrecent>";
     String eindTerm = "</mostrecent>";//Tag met mostrecent
     String vergelijkLines = lines.toLowerCase();//Hoofdletters maakt niet uit
     int plaatsTerm = vergelijkLines.indexOf(term);//plaatsen opzoeken van de tags
     int plaatsEindTerm = lines.indexOf(eindTerm);
     plaatsTerm = plaatsTerm + term.length();//Tag zelf niet meenemen
     if(plaatsTerm!=-1 &&plaatsEindTerm!=-1) {//alleen als de tags voorkomen
          lines = lines.substring(plaatsTerm,plaatsEindTerm);//tekst kopieren
     } else {
          lines="";//anders niks teruggeven
It works fine on my computer with the sun jvm, but it doesn't seem te work if you have the microsoft vm installed. I still want to make the applet compatibel for other people. What can I do about this?

Answer 1

There is a way to enable the IE Java console - try googling for instructions. There's a good chance the console displays an error message. Or if it doesn't, add debugging println's to pinpoint where something goes wrong.
The MS JVM is old and has bugs, including security bugs. If the users of your applet are in any way important to you (such as paying customers), try to get them to dump the MS JVM. They are opening themselves up to worms and such nastiness.
By the way, ' if (line != "")' isn't right, you need 'if (!line.equals(""))'.