Applets are the new "animated gif's"; they can do just what animated gifs can do, but that's not the end for your regular applet. Applets are little computer programs, that can be displayed on a web-page. Therefore, an applet can do (almost) as much as any other regular computer program.
Animated gifs were a step forward from normal plain gifs. Not everybody will agree with this, but then a lot of people do. The problem with animated gifs, however, is that they are still gifs. This implies that they can only display what they are designed to display; a certain sequence of pictures ('an animation'). If you want to change an animated gif, you have to change the whole thing itself. This means that, without any modification, the animated gif is always going to be (look like) the way you downloaded it, and it will also never change it's appearance during it's lifetime (the same animation will be displayed over and over again).
Here the real benefit of applets comes in play. Since these things are little programs, they can change their appearance, either due to some settings you take up in your page, or due to interaction with the person viewing the page. The bottom line is: you are in full control over the applet.
This page contains all sorts of applets that can be put on just any web-page. I've made them available as zip-files, so that anyone can download them. Now you may ask: "Why would he do such a thing?". Well, my name appears in all applets (but you have to ask it to give it, it's not visible when you don't ask). This way, these applets are the perfect way for me to let other people know about my web page (and thus create more traffic to it).
If you do not know how to use applets, I've given some 'starters-help' at the end of this page.
O.K., enough intro. Let's just give you the list. Every applet is shown in 'working order', with a hyperlink next to it. Click this hyperlink, and the corresponding applet will be downloaded to you. Note that the applets are given as ZIP-files. The names of the files in the ZIP's are 'long'. This means that you cannot unzip these files on a PC not using Windows 95, Windows NT or Linux. If this is the case, then you have to unzip the files on your homepage's directory. P.s.: if somebody knows how I can avoid this situation, send me a mail at: [email protected].
RunningLight
RunningLight is a light running from the one end of the page to the other, and back again.
Parameters:
The size of the applet can be changed, the direction in which the light will move, the color of
the light and of the background, the speed of the light, the light's size, the light's edge
size and the color of the light's edge.
Below are three examples of how you can use the applet.
If you are interested in 'normal' freeware, songtexts, robotics, ..., pay a visit to my index page. From here, you will be able to access all my other pages, all dealing with the above mentioned subjects.
If you find the time to press on a button, please give me some feedback on this page. You can express your likings for this page via the buttons below. Note that the message is transmitted via e-mail, so your browser is probably going to protest about 'insecure data posting'. Ignore this.
Putting an applet into your page is almost as simple as putting an (animated) picture on your page. To get more control over your applet, however, you might have to pass it some parameters, the settings of the applet (if it has any setting you can change, that is).
Below is the complete syntax of the <APPLET>-tag, followed by some examples. If these do not make you see the light, take a look at the code of this page (the source): it's cramped with applets, so there are plenty of examples here as well.
Anyway, the applet tag is a double tag (open and close), within which two types of things can be put. The first is text. Since not all browsers support applets, this text is meant to be displayed by those browsers. You may want to put some text in your applet tag saying something like "Sorry, no applets can be viewed using your browser.", for example.
The second thing you can put there is the actual parameters of the applet. For this purpose, the <PARAM>-tag is available. This tag takes two arguments, NAME= and VALUE=. Fill in the name of the parameter after the name-argument, and it's value after ..., you guessed it. Note that the name has to be given in exactly the right way. This means that you may not give lightspeed when LightSpeed is required: all letters need to match, including case.
Besides the parameters that may be passed to the applet, the applet itself also has some
settings. These settings have to be given in the <APPLET>-tag itself, so after
the name 'applet' and before the > sign. All possible arguments are listed below; arguments
with a * after them are required, and arguments with a
* are for pure 'novice' use. Possible arguments are:
CODE= * *
The applet file, including the '.class' extension;
CODEBASE=
The base URL where the applet's code is stored;
WIDTH= * *
Width of the applet on your page (in pixels);
HEIGHT= * *
Height of the applet on your page (in pixels);
HSPACE= *
Horizontal space around the applet that the browser may not fill (remains 'empty', no text will
be put in it);
VSPACE= *
Vertical space around the applet that the browser may not fill (remains 'empty', no text will
be put in it);
ALIGN= *
Vertical and horizontal alignment of the applet and the text flowing around it;
ALT= *
Text to display when the applet cannot be shown for some reason;
NAME=
Gives a name to your applet (only for use when applets want to communicate with each other on
your page; that's (still) not the case with mine).
Below are some examples that show you how to use these arguments. They all use the imaginary applet file 'doggie.class', which will show a picture of a dog on your page, but which can do more than that.
<APPLET CODE="doggie.class" WIDTH=30 HEIGHT=30>
Sorry, but your browser does not support applets.
</APPLET>
This would show doggie on your page, and the applet's size would be 30 pixels wide and 30 pixels in height. In case somebody has a browser that cannot show applets, he would see the text 'Sorry, but your browser ...'.
<APPLET CODE="doggie.class" WIDTH=30 HEIGHT=30>
<PARAM NAME="pose" VALUE="sitting">
Sorry, but your browser does not support applets.
</APPLET>
Doggie has a parameter called 'pose', which can have several values (under which 'sitting'). This generates the same applet, but now you tell the applet that the doggie's 'pose' should be 'sitting'.
<APPLET CODE="doggie.class" WIDTH=30 HEIGHT=30 HSPACE=20 ALIGN=RIGHT>
<PARAM NAME="pose" VALUE="sitting">
Sorry, but your browser does not support applets.
</APPLET>
This is my doggie, called Rufus.
Again the same applet, but now you let the browser align the applet to the right margin, and the text 'This is my ...' would flow around the applet on the left. The applet also now has a zone of 20 pixels in the horizontal direction in which no text will be put.