Slide Rule Emulator

This applet is designed to be a real-time, configurable, slide rule emulator. It currently supports zooming and on-the-fly scale reconfiguration. The emulator can handle multiple slides, and multiple cursors. Cursors can contain multiple gauge marks and hairlines. Scales can be placed anywhere on the stators, slides, or cursors. The size and texture of the rule body/surface can be changed. In short, it's totally reconfigurable!

To run this applet, you must be using a Sun-compatible Java™ Virtual Machine (JVM) version 1.4 or better. In reality, most of the known universe is running this JVM these days, except for those people buggered by Microsoft's incompatible VM from several years back. I strongly advise you to ditch the Microsoft VM (because it's not Java at all) and use a genuine JVM from Sun's site. If, after ensuring you are running a compatible JVM, and the applet still does not work.

Controls

As with any Java applet, a single click on the component when it starts up is required to give the component mouse and keyboard focus.

Dragging is the process of holding down a specified mouse button and moving the mouse whilst the mouse button is still held down. Dragging is typically used to move components of (ie: to 'use' ) the slide rule, or to adjust the position of the whole slide rule within the view window.

Cursor Movement	The cursor is the glass moveable window used for reading the results. Moving the cursor left and right is achieved by dragging with the left mouse button down, when the mouse pointer is over the cursor. The cursor will move left or right, within the physical confines of the rule body.. The cursor is always selected if there is more than one item under the mouse pointer when dragging starts. A special movement mode is provided for quick-positioning the hairline of the cursor at the current mouse position. If you click and release the left mouse button, with the mouse not moving, then the cursor will instantly reposition to the mouse position.
Slide Movement	Moving a slide left and right is achieved by dragging with the left mouse button down, when the mouse pointer is over the desired slide. The slide will move left or right, within the physical confines of the rule body. Note the the cursor has priority, so you must select an unobscured section of a slide.
Moving the Whole Slide Rule	The entire rule may be positioned in the view window by two methods. Dragging with the left mouse button down, when the mouse pointer is anywhere else other than over a moveable part of the slide rule (ie: not over the cursor, and not over the slide(s). Dragging with the right mouse button down, with the mouse pointer anywhere in the view window.
Zooming	The mouse wheel (if available) will increase and decrease the zoom factor. The up and down arrow keys on the keyboard perform the same function. Zooming is not expanding around the centerpoint yet, so you will probably have to drag the rule to a good position once you zoom.
Removing Scales	Right-click on the scale and select delete from the popup menu. The scale will be deleted and the rule will automatically resize.
Adding Scales	Right-click on the stator or slide (but *not* on a scale) and select the new scale from the popup menu. A scale will be added on the stator or slide you selected, and the rule will automatically resize.
Tooltips	The tooltip is designed to display the scale value directly under the mouse pointer. It is currently showing temporary internal values. The tooltip appears when the mouse is stationary over a scale, and will remain whilst the mouse is moved to various other scale(s). The tooltip will disappear after it has been displayed with no change for a few seconds.