Masking Console System.in in 1.5 or b4

/*   '\010' <== is the delete ASCII */

import java.io.*;

class EraserThread implements Runnable {
  private boolean stop;

  /**
   *@param The prompt displayed to the user
   */
  public EraserThread(String prompt) {
      System.out.print(prompt);
  }

  /**
   * Begin masking...display asterisks (*)
   */
  public void run () {
     stop = true;
     while (stop) {
        System.out.print("\010*");
  try {
     Thread.currentThread().sleep(1);
        } catch(InterruptedException ie) {
           ie.printStackTrace();
        }
     }
  }

  /**
   * Instruct the thread to stop masking
   */
  public void stopMasking() {
     this.stop = false;
  }
}

Flash tutorial

A very nice Flash tutorial
http://tac.nvcc.vccs.edu/flashMX/

Using Native Application to open file

This may be of interest to you. I have been looking around the web and found on a post that it is possible to open the real Acrobat viewer from Java, although it is O/S specific.

• For windows :
• Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[]{ "rundll32", "url.dll,FileProtocolHandler", "filename.pdf" });

• For a mac:
• Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[]{"open", "filename.pdf" });

JDK 1.4 Logging

The JDK defines 5 handlers:

* StreamHandler : sends messages to an OutputStream
* ConsoleHandler: sends messages to System.err
* FileHandler: sends messages to a file
* SocketHandler: sends messages to a TCP port
* MemoryHandler: buffers messages in memory

Sun has defined two formatters:

* SimpleFormatter: defines a simple message format containing among other things a timestamp
* XMLFormatter: a message in XML format

A logger with a ConsoleHandler with low priority level:

Logger logger1 = Logger.getLogger("abc.def");
logger1.setLevel(Level.FINEST);
ConsoleHandler c1 = new ConsoleHandler();
c1.setLevel(Level.FINEST);
logger1.addHandler(c1);

A logger with a FileHandler using a home made formatter:

Logger logger2 = Logger.getLogger("abc.def.ghi");
logger2.setLevel(Level.CONFIG);
FileHandler f2 = new FileHandler("%h/mylog.txt", 10000, 2, false);
f2.setFormatter(new MyFormatter());
f2.setLevel(Level.CONFIG);
logger2.addHandler(f2);


Formatters

Every handler must have a formatter defined, and the API has pre-defined a SimpleFormatter and an XMLFormatter which both extend the abstract class Formatter. You may define your own formatter if you like, and it's actually quite simple. You only have to implement the format method. This method receives an instance of the LogRecord class which contains several properties. format returns a string with the data that should be logged. In the next example I've made a formatter that returns the most important properties from the LogRecord:

import java.util.*;
import java.util.logging.*;

public class MyFormatter extends Formatter {
public String format(LogRecord record) {
return
"LogRecord info:\n" +
"Level: " + record.getLevel() + '\n' +
"LoggerName: " + record.getLoggerName() + '\n' +
"Message: " + record.getMessage() + '\n' +
" " + record.getMillis() + '\n' +
"Sequence Number: " + record.getSequenceNumber() + '\n' +
"SourceClassName: " + record.getSourceClassName() + '\n' +
"SourceMethodName: " + record.getSourceMethodName() + '\n' +
"ThreadID: " + record.getThreadID() + '\n';
}
}