tail: cannot open `+228' for reading: No such file or directory

When trying to install j2re-1_3_0_02-linux using the j2re-1_3_0_02-linux.bin installed I get the following error after accepting the license and the installer bails:

tail: cannot open `+228' for reading: No such file or directory

The offending command from the installer script is:

tail +228 $0 > $outname

The info page for tail suggest the above form should be avoided:

"avoid `tail +4',ince it might mean either 'tail ./+4' or 'tail -n +4'."

So, how do we fix this. I tried using vi(1) to edit the file, add the -n option to tail but on writing out the installer script vi told me that conversion had been done. So with a fresh copy of the installer I used the following ed script to successfully fix the installer:

ed j2re-1_3_0_02-linux.bin
/tail
s/+/-n +/
w
q

The install now runs correctly. ed did tell me it had appended a newline (presumably at the end of the file) but this didnt affect the installer.