PulseText Documentation

PulseText Version: 1.0
Last Updated: 2002/08/29

This document holds informaion to help HTML coder's to understand to configure PulseText for use in their sites. If you are unsure as to how to use applets check out The Java Boutique's tutorial: How to Add Java Applets to Your Site .

Introduction

An instance of PulseText is inserted into your webpage using HTML's <APPLET> tag. The HTML code might look something like this:

<APPLET code="PulseText.class" archive="PulseText.zip" width="320" height="24">
    <PARAM name="text" value="PulseText Version 1.0\n Makes your site look...\n
        great!\n Use it for interesting titles or dynamic text.">
    <PARAM name="bkd-color" value="black">
    <PARAM name="text-color" value="white">
    <PARAM name="pulse-color" value="red">
    <PARAM name="font" value="SansSerif-BOLD-20">
    <hr>
    Unfortunately your browser does not seem to be Java-enabled. If your
    browser supports them, plugins are available from www.javasoft.com.
    <hr>
</APPLET>

PulseText comes packaged as a *.zip archive. The Applet class ('code' attribute) you want to use is: 'PulseText.class'. Make sure you include the archive="PulseText.zip" attribute.

PulseText accepts a number of parameters that are explained below.

Parameter Names

Applet parameters are nested inside the <APPLET></APPLET> tags. They take the form:

<PARAM name="parameter-name" value="parameter-value">

The tables below decribe all of PulseText's parameters.

text

Value:	Text (\n delimited)
Description:	Lines of text are passed to a PulseText applet using the 'text' parameter. The lines of text should be supplied as ONE long string. Lines are seperated using '\n' character-sequences.
Example:	<PARAM name="text" value=Instant Ubik has all the fresh flavor of \n just-brewed drip coffee.\n Your husband will say,\n Christ, Sally,\n I used to think your coffee was only so-so.\n But now, wow!\n Safe when thaken as directed."> The above parameter would produce the following output: Instant Ubik has all the fresh flavor of just-brewed drip coffee. Your husband will say, Christ, Sally I used to think your coffee was only so-so. But now, wow! Safe when thaken as directed.
Notes:	Pulsetext will strip whitespace and carrige returns between \n characters. This allows you to neatly format your text with indentations within your HTML (see above example) without worrying about PulseText displaying it. If no text is supplied then PulseText will display it's copyright information.

font

Value:	<FONTFACE>-<STYLE>-<SIZE>
Description:	Sets the font face, style and size to render text. FONTFACE Either a font residing on the CLIENT's computer or a logical java font. Using a logical font name is recommended for cross-platform independance. Java's logical font names are: Serif SansSerif MonoSpaced Dialog DialogInput STYLE plain, bold, itlaic or bolditalic SIZE Pointsize
Example:	<PARAM name="font" value="Serif-BOLD-16"> PulseText's will render text in a bold serif font, 16 points high.
Notes:	If the font parameter is omitted or cannot be parsed then the Java Runtime's default font is used. The fontface, style and size cannot be assigned independantly. This feature wil be added along with font-lists in a future version of PulseText.

bkd-color, text-color & pulse-color

Value:	HTML color name OR Hexedecimal 24 bit RGB value (HTML style)
Description:	Assigns a colour to the background, text or pulse.
Example:	<PARAM name="bkd-color" value="black"> <PARAM name="text-color" value="white"> <PARAM name="pulse-color" value="#FFFF"> The above parameters will make PulseText render white text on a black background with a red (RGB #FFFFFF) pulse.
Notes:	The 16 standard HTML colour names are: aqua, black, blue, fuscia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white and yellow. If the colour is omitted or cannot be parsed then the Java Runtime's default background and foreground colours are used.

text-start & pulse-start

Value:	Delay (ticks)
Description:	The parameters are used to specify a delay before the text and pulse starts rendering. This delay is specified in 'ticks.' 1 tick ~ 50ms
Example:	<PARAM name="text-start" value="30"> <PARAM name="pulse-start" value="0"> This causes pulses to start rendering immediately and text to start 30 ticks (~1.5 seconds) afterwards.
Notes:	If a parameter is omitted then a default value is assigned.

text-speed & pulse-speed

Value:	Delay (ticks)
Description:	Appearence speed of the text and pulse are controlled by specifying a delay between the rendering of text characters and pulse peaks respectively. This delay is specified in 'ticks.' 1 tick ~ 50ms
Example:	<PARAM name="text-speed" value="2"> <PARAM name="pulse-speed" value="1"> This causes pulses to render at twice the speed of the text.
Notes:	If no text or pulse speed is supplied then default values are assigned.

text-fade & pulse-fade

Value:	Fade-time (ticks)
Description:	The fade parameters specify the time it takes for the text and pulse to fade to the background colour. The time is specified in 'ticks.' 1 tick ~ 50ms
Example:	<PARAM name="text-fade" value="48"> <PARAM name="pulse-fade" value="24"> Text takes 48 ticks to fade to the background; twice as long as the pulse, which takes 24.
Notes:	If a fade-time is not supplied then default values are used.

padding

Value:	# of spaces OR 'extents'
Description:	The padding parameter specifies a number of spaces to pad the lines of text out with. This has the effect of lengthening the pulses. An integer value should be supplied. The given number of spaces are appended and prepended to each line of text. Alternatively, if 'extents' is passed; this has the effect of making the pulse move across the extents of the applet's width.
Example:	<PARAM name="padding" value="8"> The text is padded with 8 spaces at the beginning and end of the text. The pulse will have a head and tail 8 spaces wide. <PARAM name="padding" value="extents"> The pulse will start from the far left of the applet and stop at the far right.
Notes:	If a padding value is not supplied then a default size is assigned.

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