Utilities

Installing a Java Virtual Machine

To run Java applets you need a Java-compatible web browser or an appletviewer program installed on your system. Our applets require browsers that support Java Platform 1.1, including the new event model. They won't work on older versions of Netscape Navigator or Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Web Browsers that run Java Platform 1.1 applets.

	Internet Explorer version 4 and later works for both the Mac and the PC. If you have a Mac you will get better performance by installing MacOS Runtime for Java (MRJ) in addition to Internet Explorer.
	Our applets only work with Netscape if you have Windows95/98/NT. Netscape for the Mac won't work.

Applet Viewers that run Java Platform 1.1 applets.

• MacOS Runtime for Java (MRJ) installs the java virtual machine onto your system folder and provides a program, Applet Runner for running applets from a local file or via a URL. You must have MacOS 7.6.1 or later in order to use MRJ.
• The Java Development Kit installs a java virtual machine onto your computer and provides a program, appletviewer for running applets from a local file or via a URL.
• The SGI Java Development Environment 3.0.1 (Sun JDK 1.1.3) & Java Execution Environment 3.0.1 (Sun JRE 1.1.3) are available from this link.

Enabling RMI Services

• When using Netscape Communicator, you need to allow the applet to run a program on a remote server. To enable this preference, add the following line to the file prefs.js (or Netscape Preferences on Mac OS):

  user_pref("signed.applets.codebase_principal_support",true);
  

  Read more about netscape security. 

• When using Internet Explorer 4.0 you need to download the file "rmi.zip" from microsoft.com (the exact path is ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/MSDN/UnSup-ed/rmi.zip, reached by clicking the RMI link at http://www.microsoft.com/java/resource/misc.htm. Copy this zip file to your "Classes" directory (on my system this is at C:\WINNT\Java\Classes\). Secondly, you need to use "regedit" to add the name of this zip file to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\JavaVM\classpath" (e.g. on my system this is now "C:\WINNT\java\classes\classes.zip;C:\WINNT\java\classes\rmi.zip;C:\WINNT\java\classes;."). After this RMI should work with IE4.0!

Installing a VRML Plugin

To run the applets which display three dimensional representations of molecules and orbitals you will need a Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) plugin for your web browser. We are eagerly awaiting the appearance of a VRML plugin for the Mac, for which there is a developer's release available.

	Download the free CosmoPlayer/2.0 plugin.
CosmoPlayer2.1 Beta for the Mac	Download the free beta version of the CosmoPlayer2.1 plugin, which is the only version available on the Mac. The Mac version works with Netscape browsers.
VRML Gallery	Test your browser by visiting one of the worlds in the Gallery at the Cosmo site.
EAI Examples	Verify that your java enabled web browser and vrml plugin can communicate with each other via the External Authoring Interface (EAI) which our applets use.
The VRML repository	The VRML Repository is an impartial, comprehensive, community resource for the dissemination of information relating to VRML. Maintained by the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC).