Frequently Asked Questions

General

  1. I have a problem!
  2. I need feature XYZ
  3. What is VWTk?
  4. What is the state of VWTk?
  5. What technologies does VWTk use?
  6. Can I use part or all of VWTk for my own project?
  7. How do I cite VWTK?
  8. Aren't there any papers published about this tool?
Installing and running
  1. What do I need to run VWTk?
  2. How do I upgrade Java?
  3. How do I install VWTk?
  4. How do I run VWTk?
Problems
  1. Out of memory!

General

I have a problem!

First: Have you checked

Being an end-user of lots of software, I know exactly how you feel. However, fixing software bugs takes time and can succeed only if there's enough information to pinpoint the problem. So ...

If you are short of time or find bug-reporting forms daunting or if you simply don't want to take the trouble:

Send an e-mail to:

vwtk-users@lists.sourceforge.net


and please attach the error log file in the vwtk directory, if you find one.

However, if you don't mind reading a bit:

    • Please go through the help to see if your question was answered. Especially check problems.
      Check the sourceforge forums to see if it has been discussed:

      https://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=126076
      If the program crashed, or suddenly stopped working or behaved in a weird and unexpected manner, check to see if there is an errorlog in the VWTk directory.
      You might also check the bug database:

      https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=126076atid=704579
      A good citizen will then file a bug report on the sourceforge site:

      https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=126076atid=704579
      If nothing works, please send an e-mail to the users list.
    • Personally I'd prefer that you follow the series of steps outlined above, but any kind of feedback is good!
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    I need feature XYZ
    Please email your request to vwtk-users@lists.sourceforge.net. You don't need to subscribe - just post your question.
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    What is VWTk?

    VWTk stands for 'Virtual World Toolkit'. However, it is more than that. It is also a general API for visualizing 2D spaces. If you can describe your world using a 2D coordinate system and write Java code, you can use the VWTk as a visualizer for your own application.

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    What is the state of VWTk?

    It is currently at version 0.8 alpha. Therefore there are a lot of rough edges. It already does some useful things and the goal is to make it a very friendly tool and a well-factored API by 1.0.

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    What technologies does VWTk use?

    VWTk uses Berkeley DB Java Edition from SleepyCat software and Piccolo from the University of Maryland. It is written in 100% Java and makes use of AspectJ for all the logging, much of the GUI creation logic and dependency injection.

    Berkeley DB Java Edition : http://www.sleepycat.com/products/bdbje.html

    Piccolo : http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/piccolo/

    AspectJ http://www.eclipse.org/aspectj/

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    Can I use part or all of VWTk for my own project?

    Yes. You can also use it in commercial projects because it is distributed under the Apache License 2.0. Please do acknowledge this work if you do.

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    How do I cite VWTK?

    Shashikant Penumarthy, The Virtual World Toolkit (VWTk). Available online at

    http://vwtk.sourceforge.net .

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    Aren't there any papers published about this tool?

    Yes, there are. There's even a book chapter. And you may cite those if you wish. Please see:

    http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~sprao/?q=publications

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    Installing and running

    What do I need to run VWTk?

    Java SE 5.0 or higher. VWTk will not run on older JVMs. You almost certainly have this latest version of Java installed. To verify, first open a command line:

    On Windows : Start-->Run-->Type ``cmd"-->Press Enter.

    Mac OS X : Go to /Applications/Utilities and double-click "Terminal"

    Now type

    java -version

    and press enter (return). You should see something like this:

    java version "1.5.0_06" Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_06-112) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_06-64, mixed mode, sharing)

    If you don't see "1.5" or higher in the first line, then you need to upgrade.

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    How do I upgrade Java?

    On Windows and Linux : Go to Sun's Java website, download and install the latest version of Java. You should be able to get it here: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp only need to "Download JRE 5.0 Update 6". You don't need netBeans or the JDK.

    On Mac OS X : Apple creates the JRE for Mac OS X, not Sun. If you run Software Update (click the Apple icon on the top left of your screen and click ``Software Update"), the latest version of Java will automatically be downloaded and installed. If not, you can get it here: http://www.apple.com/java As of this writing, the link that points to the download page is:

    http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/java2se50release1.html

    This will change in the future so its best if you use Software Update.

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    How do I install VWTk?

    There is no installation :) Just download the VWTk zip file from sourceforge and uncompress it. Usually double clicking the zip file or tar.gz file will automatically uncompress it. Otherwise you may have to use 'unzip' or 'tar zxvf'.

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    How do I run VWTk?

    On most systems, the "JAR" file is mapped in a way so that double-clicking on it starts the application. Try double clicking on the vwtk jar file (possibly named something like ``edu.iu.iv.vwtk-0.8.6.jar"). If that doesn't work, open up a command line (see What do I need to run VWTk? ) and type:

    java -jar edu.iu.iv.vwtk-0.8.6.jar

    . Of course, you should type the name of the jar file you have.

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    Problems

    Out of memory!

    If VWTk ran out of memory, you should start it with more memory. Open up a command line and start vwtk on the command line like this:



    java -Xmx1024M -jar vwtk.jar

    Replace "vwtk.jar" with the name of the jar file you have. Using "1024M" will let VWTk use (at most) 1024 Megabytes of memory (i.e. 1 Gigabyte or 1 GB).

    Examples: Use 512 MB of memory:

    java -Xmx512M -jar vwtk.jar

    Use 128MB of memory:

    java -Xmx128M -jar vwtk.jar

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