<html> Topic 13

Schedule

Intro

Topic:

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Project Guidelines

The Object of the Game

 

Goals this Week

The <object> tag is meant to insert many features into your html that makes the web dynamic and appealing. This tag and its variants are for inserting Shockwave and QuickTime movies, sound files, applets, as well as image maps. This week you will see some of the objects that can be put onto web pages. You will also see how the browser wars make more work by forcing you to use both the <object> and <embed> tag.

What to Do This Week

1. Visit one of the sites below to try out a Shockwave project, audio file or QuickTime movie:

  • "Explore Science" is created by Dr. Raman Pfaff. Here a nuclear physicist has become a multimedia producer to help students play basic physics. These are some of the best examples of how Shockwave can be used for interactivity.
  • Visit one of the pages at "Stories of the Dreaming," a site with aboriginal stories maintained by The Australian Museum. This site is particularly good since it always offers a variety of versions to serve the broadest possible audience. For each story page there is a text version, audio telling, low- and hi- quality video.
  • the Ohlone College multimedia department page includes Shockwave projects done by students.

At each of these sites, be sure not only to play the game, listen to the audio, or watch the video. Also go to "View>Page Source" to see the code used to add the Shockwave or audiovisual files.

2. If your computer has at least a Pentium chip, try viewing a Java applet (a mini-application written in the Java programming language) at one of the sites listed below. (Java applets can make computers choke if the computer is not up to digesting it.) Because of security considerations, many companies have a policy to screen out Java applets and prevent them from being downloaded.

  • "Java Bouncing Balls" by Joel Peterson is fun.
  • "The Storm" by wcmsolutions.com is fascinating, but may illustrate one of the problems trying to use a Java applet. When I visited the site, there was an error so that the program did not want to stop. The storm sound effects continued to play after I left the site.

3. Skim Chapters 15 and 14 in Raggett on HTML 4 or read about this topic in the text of your choice. If your eyes start to glaze over at the attributes described for the <object> tag, don't worry. You do not need to know them all now. This is mainly to show you where to find help when you need a reference.

4. Read the comments in the highlighted <object> link below.

5. If you know of a particularly exciting "object" at a web site send the URL to the ListServ. Make the topic of your message "Good ideas for Topic 13."

6. There is no submission for this week. The semester project is due in a few weeks.

    

Copyright by dwang, 1999. All rights reserved.