Troubleshooting Applets

Here are some things we found we had to do to get the applets to work under various platforms. If you enounter difficulties for a particular platform/browser combination, let us know (and especially let us know if you find the source of the problem so we can post it here).

Explorer must be v4.0 or higher
Netscape must be v4.06 or higher. Version 4.05 is supposed to work, but in our experience it hasn't always. The key is the version of the Java library included with the browser. You can check this by bringing up the Java Console window (under the Communicator menu). The version is always the very first line in that window. It needs to be v1.1.4 or higher. If not, get an upgraded version of Netscape.
Make sure Java is enabled in your browser.
- Netscape: go to Edit/Preferences/Advanced, click "Enable Java"
- Explorer: go to View/Internet Options/Advanced, click "Java JIT compiler enabled" (not 100% sure that this is only thing needed; if you find otherwise let us know)
If running Netscape (probably Explorer too; we're not sure) under the NT operating, if the Color Palette (under Control Panel/Display/Settings) is set to "True Color", applets will hang. You need to install a patch from Microsoft. For more information, go here
We've had trouble getting applets to run with Netscape on the Macintosh. Still no resolution to this problem (we have succeeded with Netscape on Linux, NT, and Windows 95)
When deploying an applet yourself, remember that to get the Visual Cafe components to deploy with the applet, you have to select "Final" instead of "Debug" under the Project tab in the Project/Options menu. Then when you jar the project you should see all the VCafe classes listed in the jar window.

Known bugs:

Due to roundoff error, the MD simulations on occasion get caught in an overlap configuration, and don't handle this well. This is easily fixed, but we haven't done it yet.
The MC applets here don't do anything to adjust their acceptance rate (by changing maximum displacement step sizes, for example). As a result their performance is not optimal. The latest API does pay attention to this.