JAVA

Several of the effects used on my website are made using JavaScript. Fortunately most browsers handle JavaScript in almost the same manner, but this is not the case when it comes to the programming language JAVA. To enhance the dynamic appearance of webpages thus making them more interesting, numerous websites apply the so-called applets, which are small programs written in JAVA that are downloaded by the browser and run locally. On this page for example you may find Mastermind and UFO Attack.

The trouble is that the processing of applets demands that a so-called JVM (Java Virtual Machine) is installed with the browser. Unfortunately this depends on the brand and version of the browser. JAVA is the property of SUN, and as SUN is a fierce competitor to Microsoft, the latest versions of Windows XP do not support JAVA. Formerly Internet Explorer included a JVM developed by Microsoft, but it did not follow SUN's standard. For example it did not support the Swing components from SUN. Consequently SUN legally forced Microsoft to exclude JAVA support from Internet Explorer.

In this way, if you want to have the full functionality of many websites, you have to install SUN's JAVA Plugin downloading their Java Runtime Environment (JRE). It is rather large (around 15 MB), but as a bonus you will get Java Web Start, a technique based upon JNLP (Java Network Launching Protocol). With Java Web Start it is possible to permanently install applets instead of having them fetched every time they are encountered.

If you download not only JRE but the complete SDK (Java Software Development Kit), you will be able to create your own applets. You may build your own, free JAVA development system using the SDK, Programmer's Notepad and JDK Commander. If you want something more sophisticated you may use Borland's JBuilder or Netbeans IDE.

As an example of an applet of my own, I have created this one. It calculates Body Mass Index (BMI). The Source Code illustrates the use of Swing components.