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Special Effects and Game Development in Java(TM) - The Applet FallingText

 

import java.applet.*;

import java.awt.*;



public class fallingtext extends Applet implements Runnable {



public Thread animationthread = null;

public String message;



public void init()

{

    message="Falling text is a cool effect!";

}



public void start()

{

    if (animationthread == null)

    {

         animationthread = new Thread(this,"animationthread");

         animationthread.start();

    }

}



public void stop()

{

    if ((animationthread != null) && animationthread.isAlive())

        animationthread.stop();

    animationthread = null;

}



public void run()

{

    int L=message.length();



    //Create a string with a blankspace for the animation.

    String blankspace="                                 ";

    blankspace=blankspace+blankspace+blankspace;



    //Set the variable "mL" to the blankspace's length.

    int mL=blankspace.length();



    //The first loop will count up to the message's

    //length minus one.

    for (int i=0; i<L-1; i++)
{ //The second loop will count up to the blankspace's
//string length with 8 step's at the time in order
//to increase speed. for (int i=0; imL; j+=8) { //Show an increasing part of the message //with a decreasing part of the blankspace //and the last letter in the message string. showStatus(message.substring(0,i) +blankspace.substring(j) +message.substring(i,i+1)); try {Thread.sleep(50);} catch(InterruptedException e) {} } } //The last loop will see to that the //message is not overwritten by other status //messages. while(true) { showStatus(message); try {Thread.sleep(50);} catch(InterruptedException e) {} } } }