JAIMEAS README
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Author: M.D. Nijdam (marco@west.nl)
Identification: $Id: README,v 1.17 1999/12/31 11:54:03 marco Exp $
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Introduction
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This is version 1.5 of JAIMEAS.
Copyright (c) 1996-1999 by Marco Nijdam.
You may download and use the JAIMEAS applet free of charge for any purpose.
See file COPYRIGHT.html for more information.
JAIMEAS is a general purpose Java applet that allows you to create an
"active interface" for Web pages very easily and quickly.
An active interface can be used for many things, like button bars, animations,
product presentations, computer aided learning, simple games. The interface
you create can react to mouse movement and mouse buttons. You can build
a point and click interface, but also drag and drop or just point.
Many of the current special purpose Java applets can be implemented with
JAIMEAS more easily and quickly, because you do not have to know Java.
The examples on this site support this claim.
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Documentation
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Most of the documentation is in HTML format. It is best read using
a Java enabled browser. It also contains examples of usage of JAIMEAS.
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Installation
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There is no automated installation procedure, because there is
hardly anything to do.
This README file was contained in either jaimeas.tar.Z or jaimeas.zip.
Installation just involves untarring or unzipping that same file
in the right directory.
Note: File naming is NOT restricted to the 8.3 MS-DOS length, so MS-DOS
users will have to upgrade to MS-Windows 95 (or Linux or OS/2) first.
Note2: For existing JAIMEAS users: the examples that were in a separate
tar/zip file in previous versions are now in the single distribution
file (either jaimeas.tar.Z or jaimeas.zip).
Untarring
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Tar is mainly Unix oriented. You can unpack the compressed tar file using:
cd the-directory-where-this-has-to-go-it
zcat jaimeas.tar.Z | tar xvf -
Unzipping
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Zip files can be read on almost any platform, as long as you have the
right tools. We have unzip for Unix.
For Macintosh users (and maybe others) make sure, when unzipping the
file(s) your zip utility is set to unpack the zip file as "binary" or with
option "smart-strip linefeeds from text files" turned off (for Zipit; you
may need to restart Zipit after changing the settings) or option
"convert newlines" off (Info-Zip's Unzip).
MS-Windows 95 users must make sure their zip utility can extract files
and directories with extended names.
In general make sure the zip utility is set to extract directories
(some subdirectories must be created; check this after unzipping)
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Usage
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First read the copyright notice in COPYRIGHT.html.
If you want to use the JAIMEAS applet for your own active interface,
you only need to copy the Java class files (filename ending in ".class")
to your directory.
The documentation explains the structure of script files.
Request: If you can, I'd like you to make an acknowledgement of the
use of JAIMEAS somewhere on one of your pages.
For example, use the following HTML code (you are free to do
it in any other way as well):
We use JAIMEAS
for the active interface.
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Feedback
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I'm interested in any feedback on the product. If you use JAIMEAS, drop
me a note with the URL (by e-mail to marco@west.nl). Also, let me know
about any bugs you find, or new features you like.
If you make any changes or enhancements to the Java sources that
may be of interest to others, please send the changes to me, so
I can include them in a next version of JAIMEAS.
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Change log
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1996-04-24 Release of version 1.0
1996-06-03 Release of version 1.1
- Major performance enhancements. By using the profiler
(very easy by the way!), performance has been increased
with a factor of 8 to 10! While version 1.0 seemed a
bit sluggish, in version 1.1 you really get direct
feedback.
- Fixed bug in initial showing object with size of applet
(i.e. width and/or height equal -1).
- Added preview of interactive tutorial. It is very
incomplete, but it already looks nice, with interesting
special effects, and guided tours.
1996-06-27 Release of version 1.2
- It is not required anymore to always have an "onload show"
command. In version 1.1 without it gave an Exception.
- Groups of objects, also recursive, also animations in groups.
Script gets
group ;
see usage.html for more information.
- The interval between animation frames is not statically
fixed on 100 milliseconds anymore, but is now half the
smallest interval (greater than zero) used in any
animation. This may result in v1.1 scripts to behave
a bit different, because the timing is now more accurate
than before.
- If script contains references to non-existing objects
this is printed as a warning to standard out.
- Fixed a couple of problems related to restart of the
applet. It now reinitializes itself completely.
- The jai2draw.pl script has been improved to handle
groups and escaped double quotes.
- Fully functional on-line interactive tutorial.
1996-09-01 Release of version 1.3
- Added audio object (finally).
If you show it it starts playing. If you hide it it stops.
It also works in animations (if it is in the active
animation frame, it plays).
- Objects may now have a name, not just a number as
identifier. A number is still a valid identifier,
so old script will continue to work. An object name
may contain almost any character, except double quotes.
If you want, for any reason, include spaces, comma's,
or other non-alphanumeric characters in the name, the
name must be enclosed in double quotes, like a string.
- Handle animations inside animations, and also animations
in groups in animations correctly.
An animation inside an animation will stop when the
next frame of the top animation is shown, and will
restart when it is its turn again.
- Text objects can consist of multiple lines.
To start a new line in a text definition, insert a
backslash (\) followed by a new-line in the string.
- Fixed jai2draw: location for texts is now correctly
computed, rectangle and oval are correctly converted,
handle conversion of multi-line texts.
!! - Changed interpretation of y-coordinate of text.
It has been noted that texts on other systems may appear
displaced. This is due to another meaning of getAscent().
Before the y-coordinate was the top of the text.
From version 1.3 onward, it is the base-line of the text.
Backward compatibility is ensured. New scripts must have
on the first line the text like "JAIMEAS 1.3;" (1.3 is
the JAIMEAS version). Old scripts without such a line,
or with version 1.2, will be interpreted as before.
You must also upgrade JAIDraw if you use it, because
the interpretation is also changed for JAIDraw.
jai2draw.pl will convert old scripts to JAIDraw
1.3 format, new scripts to JAIDraw 1.4 format.
JAIDraw 1.4 (or later) will interpret both in the
correct way.
- Added reporting of redefined objects (non-fatal).
1996-09-17 Release of version 1.3.1
- Fixed and enhanced HTML documentation a bit.
1997-01-19 Release of version 1.3.2
- Renamed drawing program to "JAIDraw".
1997-05-14 Release of version 1.3.3
- Bug fix for JAIMEAS code.
1997-10-29 Release of version 1.4
- Added new command "onpostload", to trigger action
when all images and sounds have been loaded.
- Fixed initial rendering of images with given size.
- Changed some things to get it to work with Communicator
(Some GIF images were not loaded and very large numbers (10
digits) were not seen as numbers anymore).
- For animate objects, negative waittime will wait
for ever on last object.
This is a solution for the large number problem above.
- Improved loading time of script.
- Changed behaviour if images could not be loaded:
show error message for short time in a corner, but
execute rest of script normally.
1999-04-30 Release of version 1.4.1
- No changes to the program, but now including the Java
source code!
- Changed copyright to be GPL.
- Some corrections in the documentation.
1999-12-31 Release of version 1.5
- Added support for reading ZIPped script files (filename
ending in ".zip"). This is only supported in browsers
that have JDK 1.1 support (mostly 4.x browsers or higher).
There is a fallback for older browsers, to strip the
".zip" from the filename and try to load that file.
- Added "include" statement, to include another script file
in a script file.
- Added "move" option for actions, to move objects to
absolute locations, or relative to their current location.
- Documented MAYSCRIPT applet attribute needed to call
Javascript URLs from an action's load option.