Tumblin' Text

I'll call this release 1.0, and date it June 22, 1996. It's copyrighted (c) by Jim Buzbee. It's also freeware. Feel free to use it for any use.

Let's look at the applet. Here's a list of the applet tag parameters. Many can be overridden by commands in the command file, but the applet tag sets the initial state. I think most also have reasonable defaults :

file         -- name of file on server for commands
X            -- X position for text
Y            -- Y position for text
lc           -- Loop Count, how many times to loop before re-reading file
wd           -- Word delay, delay in milliseconds between words
td           -- Tumble delay, delay in milliseconds between "tumbles"
yr           -- Y Rotation flag, true or false
xr           -- X Rotation flag, true or false
zr           -- Z Rotation flag, true or false
font         -- Hershey font name
fg           -- Foreground color in hex i.e. 00FF00
bg           -- Background color in hex i.e. FFFFFF
charsize     -- Character size 1.0 is normal
charwidth    -- Character Line width 1 is default
url          -- URL to go to when applet clicked

Look at my the source for my demo for an example.

OK, now for the command file syntax. Each line of the file is a single text animation. The line consists of an optional parameter portion, followed by the text to display. The settings from one line, i.e. rotation, will carry over to the next line if they are not overridden on that line. Here's an example :

{ fg =ff0000 xr= true zr = true yr=false }For

The parameter portion is enclosed in braces {}. The foreground color is set to red, we will rotate about the x and z axis, we will not rotate about the y axis. The text to display is "For". There are two special text strings recognized, DATE and HOST. They must be enclosed in angle brackets ( I don't know how to get them in a html file ). These strings will be translated to the current date/time and the host name the applet is running on. To see the command file for my example, look at strings.txt.

Here is a list of the command file settable parameters. The descriptions are the same as the applet tag parameters ( these are case sensitive ):

• xr
• yr
• zr
• x
• y
• url
• file
• wd
• td
• fg
• bg

To use this applet, download the TumblinText class along with the hershey font class and desired font(s). See my Hershey Font page for instructions.
I now have everything you need in an on-line zip file.
Here's the TumblinText source.
Any Questions comments or problems, Drop me a line

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If you had a Java enabled browser, you would see my demo now ! Tumble on back.

Jim Buzbee
jbuzbee@nyx.net

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