Da Clock
Da Clock is the name of a Java clock that I made one weekend. Since this was my first attempt at a Java program,
it took me longer than it should have because of all the
pitfalls that programmers fall into when working with a new
language. Eventually, my patience paid off, and this clock is
the result. The clock is a bit slow, but when I tried to make
it faster it became unstable. Since everything is slow with Java, I figured that if it has to be slow it might as well be stable.
If you are interested in the technical details,
the clock uses
15 different GIF files for the graphics, and it has one AU sound
file. If you click on the clock's buttons, you should hear
an appropriate sound effect (if you have a sound card). You
will also hear a at every hour. All of
the graphics are double buffered to eliminate flicker although
there
is still some flicker when the clock is getting started. If you
have any comments, I will be glad to hear them at
sdkess@geocities.com.
Also, if you like to program in Java for some reason beyond my
understanding, you can explain that to me as well. I really
like the things that can be done with Java, but I find that I
spend the majority of my programming time trying to solve
trivial problems caused by the structure of the language. Also, you can't write your own low level functions. If there is a low level function you need that isn't a part of the Java language, you are out of luck unless a new release has that feature. Also, I like to get my hands dirty with low level graphics code. No such thing with Java! If
future programming languages are all going to be similar to
Java, then I am changing my field of study! I'd rather stick
with my C (I don't use C++) compiler, Assembler, and my Math books thank you very
much. Anyway, I'm sick of complaining so e-mail me if you want
to know more.
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