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One of the advantages by us<strong>in</strong>g Java is the mach<strong>in</strong>e neutral property of the compiled byte-code. That means,<br />

the same applet can be used on heterogeneous hardware platforms. The compiled byte-code is efficient enough<br />

<strong>in</strong> speed to be comparable to mach<strong>in</strong>e code compiled by native compiler.<br />

Java supports multi-thread<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the language syntax. Multi-thread<strong>in</strong>g is useful <strong>in</strong> this project, as we can<br />

partition the functions performed by Java applets <strong>in</strong>to several sub-tasks. One of the thread deals with the<br />

network <strong>in</strong> order to load the required fonts on demand. Another thread processes the document requested to be<br />

displayed on screen. Yet another thread looks for user <strong>in</strong>teraction and responds accord<strong>in</strong>gly.<br />

Security is an <strong>in</strong>tegral part <strong>in</strong> Java applet design. There are several ways <strong>in</strong> a Java applet to safe guard<br />

crackers, Trojan Horse or computer virus programs. Java applet is normally not allowed to make network<br />

connection but only to the host where the applet is come from. This measure can stop Trojan Horse programs<br />

that <strong>in</strong>tend to gather local <strong>in</strong><strong>format</strong>ion. Java applet is not allowed to read/write files on local computer, for the<br />

same reason to stop Trojan Horse. Java is a strong-typed language. All references to memory should go<br />

through a def<strong>in</strong>ed object, so that the size and limit of an object can be verified.<br />

The On-demand Font Service <strong>in</strong> this project is implemented by us<strong>in</strong>g Java applets. We believe that Java<br />

provides a suitable environment for us to develop a distributed network tool which can be run on heterogeneous<br />

computer platforms. The Object Oriented features <strong>in</strong> Java language helped us to write manageable code. The<br />

security features <strong>in</strong> Java applet assures the safe operation <strong>in</strong> a public network. The multi-thread<strong>in</strong>g ability <strong>in</strong><br />

Java language let us exploit available comput<strong>in</strong>g resources without pay<strong>in</strong>g extra effort to cater for different<br />

computer architectures. Java is new and hot, we foresee that the Java language may be one of the popular<br />

languages <strong>in</strong> distributed comput<strong>in</strong>g environment <strong>in</strong> the future [Ritchey 95].<br />

System Setup<br />

A complete On-demand Font Service on Heterogeneous Computer Platforms composed of a number of entities.<br />

They are:<br />

WWW Server<br />

The WWW server is responsible for store and transmission of WWW documents. On the WWW server, it<br />

runs a daemon program, usually called , which it listens on a network socket for HTTP request. The<br />

syntax and response for the request are def<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> the Hypertext Transfer Protocol [Lee et al. 96]. In the<br />

WWW server filesystem, it stores multi-l<strong>in</strong>gual documents, the on-demand font service Java applets and the<br />

characters/fonts are supported by that server. There is no special sett<strong>in</strong>g nor non-standard programs on the<br />

WWW server for this project. The WWW server even does not require to support multiple languages <strong>in</strong> its<br />

own environment.<br />

Multi-l<strong>in</strong>gual Document Syntax<br />

In a WWW page, if there are multi-l<strong>in</strong>gual documents <strong>in</strong> it, the WWW adm<strong>in</strong>istrator has to specify them by<br />

us<strong>in</strong>g a def<strong>in</strong>ed syntax. As exist<strong>in</strong>g WWW browsers support Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) [Lee et<br />

al. 96], the syntax to def<strong>in</strong>e a multi-l<strong>in</strong>gual document follows that standard. The follow<strong>in</strong>g is a sample cod<strong>in</strong>g<br />

to <strong>in</strong>clude a multi-l<strong>in</strong>gual document called conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g traditional Ch<strong>in</strong>ese (BIG-5 encod<strong>in</strong>g)<br />

characters:<br />

The applet parameter specifies that an applet called will be transferred from the<br />

WWW server to the browser. The parameter specifies the multi-l<strong>in</strong>gual file to be displayed. It can

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