Paradigm 1.5.3

[Kory Heath]

I've upgraded Paradigm to version 1.5.3. If you're using the offline version, please download the new JAR.

This version fixes a bug which caused tile-outlines to scale improperly. The effect was most noticeable in Ryan's pattern "Jumpy".

Also, I've been unhappy with Paradigm's solitaire game, so I'm trying a different approach. In the new version, there's no "computer player" that reveals tiles. You take your turn as normal; if you end your turn, you keep the points you collected, and if you guess incorrectly, you don't get to keep them. In addition, at the end of each turn you lose a number of points equal to the difficulty level you chose. Your goal is to get a positive score. You play until you've revealed every tile.

I found that in the previous solitaire version, it was too easy to capitalize on the fact that the computer revealed tiles. If the pattern had the right kind of sub-patterns, every tile the computer revealed might earn you a couple of easy points, in which case it would be easy to beat the computer even without figuring out the rest of the pattern. The new solitaire version is more like a race against the clock. If you set the difficulty-level to 3, you have to guess at least 3 tiles correctly per turn (on average) to stay even.

Obviously the solitaire game isn't quite as compelling as the multiplayer game. If anyone has some ideas about how to make it more compelling, post away.

-- Kory

[carlto...@gmail.com]

I have a question abot .JAR files and maybe this isn't exactly the spot
for it, bet here I go anyway. My machine at home currently has XP pro
on 2 Partitions and BeOS DevEd 1_1 on another. Previously I had Ubuntu
Linux on the Partition Where the BeOS is now. In XP double clicking on
a jar file launches the app within. I have only done this with Paradigm
and JavAquarius. Howver in Linux and BeOS doubleclicking on a jar file
launches the archive handler and either performs or asks to perform (as
In BeOS expander) the extraction of the archived files. Any way to
prevent this from happening or any advice on how to run the app once it
is expanded? I am not expecting many people to have a lot of infoe
about BeOS or BeKaffe ( the jvm for BeOS) but since the behavior was
similar (for me at least) in Linux I thought I might be able to muscle
my way through with the info.

Carlton 'Kermit' Noles

[Kory Heath]

Hi Carlton,

I don't know anything about Java in Linux or BeOS, but here are some basic facts about Java and JAR files:

If you can find the JVM executable (on Windows it's java.exe or javaw.exe in the bin directory of the java install), you should be able to run it with the switch -jar to execute a jar file. On my system, I can run paradigm by doing the following:

"[directory of java install]/bin/javaw.exe" -jar "[directory of paradigm jar]/Paradigm.jar"

Windows needs the double-quotes if there are spaces in the path names.

I assume that Linux or BeOS provides some way of setting what happens when you double-click files with different extensions. So there may be some way you can set it up to run the java executable and pass it the -jar switch whenever you double-click on a JAR file.

Also, if you want to run paradigm from the extracted class files, you should be able to do:

"[directory of java install]/bin/javaw.exe" "[directory you extracted to]/paradigm.Paradigm"

Instead of "javaw.exe", use whatever the JVM executable name is on your system. Notice that your target path is not the directory of the class files themselves, but the directory above that, which contains the directories "META-INF" and "paradigm". The target itself is "paradigm.Paradigm", using a dot instead of a slash. Don't say "paradigm.Paradigm.class" - the JVM executable adds the ".class" automatically. At least, this is how it all works on Windows.

-- Kory

[carlto...@gmail.com]

That should help me get where I want to go ( i think ). a step in the
right direction anyway. In windows I just doubl click on the jar and
have no problems. So I'll just have to play the games in windows for
now.