Applet Not Inited; the "Red X" problem

I haven't done Applet stuff in years.

I do -- intensely -- like embedding functionality in web pages.  RIA/Ajax and what-not are something I have trouble with because I'm not a graphic designer.  Javascript and Applets fall into three clear categories:

1. Basic usability.  Javascript offers lots of little enhancements to HTML presentation that make sense.  Emphasis on "little".
   
2. Client-side features.  Many things are simple calculators or other processing that makes sense on the client side -- the relevant factors can be downloaded and used by an applet or javascript script.  
3. Junk.  There are lots of graphical effects that vary from gratuitous to irritating.  Too many folks in marketing see some "pop-up" technique and think it's cool.  Worse, they'll take an application that lacks solid use cases and try to add flashing to scrolling to emphasize something instead of reducing clutter and distraction.  Sigh.

The Common Problems

In all web-based software development, the number one problem is always permissions.  Always.  In the case of applet development, this is always hurdle number one.  The file isn't owned by the right person or doesn't have the right permissions.  You see the "applet not inited" and "red X icon" as symptoms of the applet not being downloaded at all.

The number two problem is access to resources.  Usually this is a CLASSPATH issue, but it can also be an HTML page with a wrong URI for the applet's code.  You see the "applet not inited" and "red X icon" as symptoms of the applet not being referenced correctly, or not being able to locate all of its parts.

[Technically, the basic access comes before permissions, but you usually don't get access wrong first.  Usually, you get permissions wrong; later, you discover you have a subtle access issue.]

One of the more subtle manifestations are the case-matching issues.  Your Java class definitions are usually UpperCase.  The source file and resulting class file will have this same UpperCase format.  But if you get the case wrong in your HTML, you just get an applet not inited error.  Arrgh.

When you don't work with applets all that often, the "applet not inited" is baffling.

Misdirection

I wasted hours on Google and Stack Overflow looking up "applet not inited" and "Red X icon" and similar stuff.

Then I looked at the HTML I was testing.

Surprise.  No one had moved the .jar file into the proper directory.

There's a lot of stuff on the applet not inited error.  Most of it misses the usual culprits: permissions and access to the resources.