Welcome to Simplicity for Java!

PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY FOR IMPORTANT INSTALLATION NOTES!

Last updated : March 30, 2000

Installation notes

 NOTE: Before beginning the install, you must have installed a JDK1.1.4 or greater on your computer. This must be a full JDK; a JRE is not enough. If you have any problems with the installation, please send an email to:
support@datarepresentations.com.

Platform-specific notes

Windows 95/98/NT

  1. On Windows NT you must use jdk 1.1.7B or higher.
  2. The installer is called simpjava.exe. Double click this file to begin the installation.
  3. A 'Simplicity for Java' item will be added to your Start menu. Start Simplicity for Java using this Start menu item.

Mac OS
  1. Macintosh users must first install the MRJ 2.1.4 available from http://developer.apple.com/java/.
  2. We highly recommend having at least 64 MB of RAM installed to use Simplicity for Java on the Macintosh.
  3. The installer will create an icon called 'Simplicity for Java' in the directory you choose for the installation. Use this icon to start Simplicity for Java.

OS/2 Warp
  1. The installation must be performed on an HPFS drive.
  2. We recommend using jdk117 from IBM. This can be found at http://www.ibm.com/Java/jdk/download/. Do NOT use jdk116, as it contains a bug which will crash the WPS when you exit from Simplicity. If you are using jdk118, be sure to apply the latest jdk fixpaks.
  3. The distribution for OS/2 is called simpjava.zip. Unzip this file using an unzip utility, being careful to maintain the directory structure.
  4. OS/2 users may wish to execute the simpwps.cmd file. This REXX script will create a WPS object on the OS/2 desktop for starting Simplicity.

Linux
  1. Be certain to use the latest revision of the JDK from www.blackdown.org. Simplicity for Java will work properly with either jdk1.1.7_v3, jdk1.2.2_rc3, or jdk1.2.2_rc4.
  2. Suse Linux users: the rpm packaged blackdown jdk from older Suse distributions contains an incomplete version of libjpeg.so. This causes the jdk to be unable to display jpeg files. To fix this, install the .tar.gz distribution from blackdown (jdk1.1.7), and then copy the libjpeg.so from that distribution over the one in /usr/X11R6/lib.
  3. The distribution for Linux is a .tar.gz file, named simpjava.tar.gz. To install, copy the distribution to your user directory and execute the following commands to unpack the archive:
    gzip -d simpjava.tar.gz
    tar -xf simpjava.tar
  4. In the resulting directory is a script called 'Simplicity'. You need to edit the two variables in the file which correspond to the location of the java executable on your machine and the location of the Simplicity install directory.
  5. Set the script to be executable (using the chmod command.) You can start Simplicity for Java by typing "./Simplicity" in this directory. This file can be moved to your $HOME/bin directory if you wish.

Solaris / Other Unix
  1. The distribution is a .tar.gz file, named simpjava.tar.gz. To install, copy the distribution to your user directory and execute the following commands to unpack the archive:
    gzip -d simpjava.tar.gz
    tar -xf simpjava.tar
  2. In the resulting directory is a script called 'Simplicity'. You need to edit the two variables in the file which correspond to the location of the java executable on your machine and the location of the Simplicity install directory.
  3. Set the script to be executable (using the chmod command.) You can start Simplicity for Java by typing "./Simplicity" in this directory. This file can be moved to your $HOME/bin directory if you wish.
  4. On some Solaris machines, Simplicity for Java will stall shortly after starting. This can be fixed by disabling the JIT. To do this, edit the lines defining the JIT variable in the startup script.

Startup Customization

On most OS's, the installer will create a startup script from which Simplicity can be invoked.

You also may wish to start Simplicity for Java manually. To do so, make sure that your CLASSPATH environment variable includes Simplicity.jar, swingall.jar, and datarep_common.jar.

For example, on Windows 95,

set CLASSPATH=C:\Simplicity\simplicity.jar;
	C:\Simplicity\swingall.jar;
	C:\Simplicity\datarep_common.jar

On Linux,

$SIMPLICITY=/home/user/Simplicity_for_Java
export CLASSPATH=$SIMPLICITY/simplicity.jar:$SIMPLICITY/swingall.jar:$SIMPLICITY/datarep_common.jar

Simplicity is started using the following command:
java -mx100m datarep.Simplicity

Documentation

The Simplicity for Java manual and tutorials are provided in two formats. The first is HTML, which can be found in the doc directory. It can be viewed with any browser directly, or from the Help menu in the Simplicity IDE. The documentation and tutorials are also provided in Adobe Acrobat format, suitable for printing. This file can be found in Simplicity's installation directory, called Simplicity.pdf.

Audio Support

All audio support in Simplicity for Java is handled by a class called datarep.common.ApplicationAudioClip which implements the java.applet.AudioClip interface and uses sun.audio.* to provide platform-specific audio processing.

In order to comply with the 100% Pure Java Specifications, the ability to play audio files (*.au) has been removed. The default ApplicationAudioClip class (found in the datarep_common.jar file) will produce a simple beep sound regardless of the contents of the audio file you are attempting to play.

*** You can re-enable full audio support by replacing the datarep_common.jar file in the main installation directory with the one in the 'NotPureJava' directory.

Using this class introduces non-pure Java into Simplicity. It is known to work well on many platforms, though, including Win95/98/NT, MacOS, OS/2 Warp, and Solaris.