Downloaded the JDK off the sun site. Only took 3 hours...
Also managed to grab various docs that should be useful. Java 2D demo looks mighty good.
8th September 2001
Due to socialising and general avoidance of all things programming, I've not had a chance to start the project until today. Onwards and er, downwards. Created a mini-applet which will load the pitch and blit a player on to it. Then proceeded to get extremely annoyed by java.io.InputStreams. Eventually gave up and watched GI Jane instead. (Good film)
9th September 2001
More input stream hacking, this time with more success. I see now, get the relative filename path, create an InputStream, create a ByteArrayInputStream from that, and then read the values from the file into a byte array. And pray you don't get an IOException thrown. Then, once this was done, spent most of the day fuming about the fact that this piece of code doesn't work:
int i,j;
j = 633;
i = (33.97 / 633 ) * j; // ok
i += (89 / 633) * j; // value of right hand is ALWAYS zero. And this compiles too.
I wouldn't mind, but this is very basic logic. (For those of you interested, you have to put an (int) cast at the beginning and pray). It seems strange that this will work in any other programming language, and it's not as if the solution (or problem!) is obvious either. Only the most defensive of C/C++ coders would think of this solution immediately. It's too easy to do. Rant Rave Rant Rave.
Still, got it working, opened the tactics file, mangled the tactics file data into something looking like roughly decent co-ordinates and I was about to start looking at how to manage ball-quadrants when I accidentally (oops) watched Empire Strikes Back and then went to the pub.
28th September 2001
Much too much dossing, not enough Java-swosing. In the meantime I've swallowed a couple of manuals-worth of information about HTML. My SWOS CD has finally given up the ghost and decided not to let me finish the season any more too :-( . Fantastic two player games against my brother however, before he moved down to Bournemouth - DIY leagues: Play each other * 2, "Hero" teams where you choose your favourite players using PCSWOSFFF , swapping between keys and joypad. First two attempts at this, and the leagues ended up equal. I beat him in the end though!
SWOS Java