The
best way to get started reading books is to download one of the Players
that read our WorkBooks or Microworlds, and to join the Library. To
read a Microworld in your browser,
you will need an ActiveX enabled browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer
5.0 or later, for example). In any case, you may read all of our books
outside of your browser with the appropriate offline Reader (Mathwright32
Reader or Mathwright2000 Reader). These work in all versions of Windows™
after Windows 95. Read about the Microworld Technology here.
You
have three choices of Players. All are
free. Actually, there are two new ones (MathwrightNET and Mathwright32
NET Reader) but those are written in anticipation of Microsoft's next
operating system after XP that should include its new .NET framework.
For now, it's best to stick with MathwrightWeb
for your browser, or Mathwright32 for offline
reading.
When
you download the free player, you will be given the choice to download
either the WEB or the NET version. Usually, the WEB
version will be the correct choice unless your operating system is
very new (as of February, 2003) and you prefer not to download the
Microsoft Java Virtual Machine, which is quite small (5 M).
- The MathwrightWeb
ActiveX Control will immediately enable your MSIE 5.0 Browser
to read any of the
Microworlds at the Library. You read these as multi-page applets
online.
-
The
Mathwright32
Reader reads our new and growing collection of Library
Microworlds (as opposed to WorkBooks)
offline. Microworlds are Mathwright "WorkBooks"
that you can also read in your browser.
- The Mathwright
Library Player 2000 reads our original collection (149 books)
of Library WorkBooks (as opposed to Microworlds)
offline. This is our classic 16-bit Player which has been in use at
the Library for over 5 years and has, as we might say, withstood the
test of time. This
works with all versions of Windows.
Mathwright
Microworlds are
multi-page documents that you may read either online in your browser,
or offline. MathwrightWeb is written in Mathscript on top of LISP on
top of Java.
You
can view the Microworlds online only in an ActiveX enabled browser,
such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or later, and you must be using
one of the Windows 32-bit operating systems.
Our
use of ActiveX controls to support the Microworlds reflects a design
decision that we made in order to provide a point-and-click authoring
environment that gave authors as much freedom as possible to implement
their ideas, and, at the same time, made the product of their work technologically
transparent to students, we found that we needed the full attention
of a single compliant and mature operating system. The Microsoft Windows
operating system is the canvas on which we have chosen to paint.
Note:
This requires Microsoft's
Java Virtual Machine (JVM) which has been installed with Windows. All
versions of Windows before Spring 2003 have the JVM, but Windows XP
does not automatically install it any more. This is because Microsoft
will not have permission from Sun Microsystems to upgrade its JVM after
2007.
Most likely, you have the Microsoft JVM on your machine, and you will
have no problem reading our Microworlds in your browser or in your private
collection of offline Microworlds. If you do not
have the Microsoft JVM, however, you will see a tiny rectangle instead
of the Microworld Portal online, or you will get a "Class not present"
error offline. In that case, the simplest solution will be to download
the Microsoft JVM and install it. We have Microsoft's permission
to distribute it to you, and you may download a free copy for
Windows 95/98/Me or XP here
(5 M). Not
sure what a JVM is? Read about the latest news on this technology at
the Library here.
We
explain in Finding
your Books how to locate books that might interest you. Meanwhile,
get
MathwrightWeb, and then visit the Visualization Studio in the MATH
Cafe to sample some of our free demonstration Microworlds or Interactive
Web Books.
