Some of which make sense only if you have downloaded the code or received it in the mail.You may also purchase the compiled code for $5.00 (Check to A-Square is good).
For Yule 2001, the card is a Rart universe Xmas01. You can see it
executing by opening it with a Java enabled web-browser. For example Internet Explorer 4.0 and later and AOL 5.0
or later works on the PC as well as on the Mac. Netscape 6.1 does not work, however.
Here are four levels of instructions. Depending on your computer skills, you can do more or less with the Xmas01
universe.
A long muse click anywhere on an executing card calls up a dialog allowing you to change some parameters for your viewing pleasure. Experiment and enjoy!
(Notepad for PC, Simple Text for Mac).
Consider the card yours to forward or post howsoever you wish. This explains how to customize the card for another
recipient than yourself. There are two textfiles, text1.txt and text2.txt, that you may modify to adapt the card.
text1 has a permanent greeting on the first line (e.g. 'For Jeane') followed by a list of holidays, each on its
own line. The program randomly selects among the holidays listed. text2 has the final line (e.g. 'With Love from
Jan' ) optionally followed by a list of names, each on its own line, from which the program selects one name to
post following the line 'With Special Greetings' and the word 'for' preceding the name followed by 'and'. If there
are no names for special greetings the card will only display the first line of text2. You have to watch the last
line. If it does not show, you may have to add an extra enter. Conversely, if you have an empty entry showing,
you may have to take away the last line in the textfile. I will be pleased to have you zip the card to your friends
or post it on some website. (Permission is hereby granted by Jan Aminoff and A-Square as long as the text provided
is in the spirit of the season. In any case, Jan Aminoff and A-Square accepts no responsibility whatsoever for
what anybody may do with the programs and the text).
If you run the card using Internet Explorer on the PC and under the View menu select source, the
source html will automatically be opened in a Notepad document and you can edit it. In particular you can change
the applet tag which now reads
<APPLET ARCHIVE="xmas.jar" CODE="rrlet.RRlet.class" WIDTH="760" HEIGHT="450"
ALIGN="BOTTOM">
<PARAM NAME="UNIVERSE" VALUE="Xmas01">
<PARAM NAME="DEBUG_LEVEL" VALUE="0">
<PARAM NAME="NUMBER" VALUE="15">
</APPLET>
a. You can change the size of the applet as it appears on the page by changing WIDTH and/or HEIGHT. The program
is sophisticated enough to adapt to the available size.
b. You can change the number (PARAM NUMBER) of flakes showing initially to anything between 1 and 60.
c. You can run the Xmas01 universe in a simplified RartRunner, which does not allow you to cange any parameters,
except the number of flakes which you change by doubleclicking. To see how this looks you simply change the CODE
tag to read as follows CODE="rartbase.RRL". In this case a long moseclick should open the About dialog.
Below is a bat file predicated on you having JDK 1.1.8 installed on your C-drive and wishing to use the Applet Viewer in Windows. If you like the universe and would like me to modify it on your behalf, let us talk about it! We can also discuss the availability of the sourcecode. This bat-file should be located in the same folder as the xmasJar.html startup.
path c:\"jdk1.1.8"\bin
java -version
appletviewer xmasJar.html
exit