Chris Cobb's "Obligatory" Ticker Tape Applet
Version 5.11

The parameters are as follows:

	Textn: Specifies settings for the strings of text to be displayed. A single text string must be given the name "Text1"; multiple text strings may be specified on separate "param" statements, with the names of "Text1", "Text2", ..., "Textn". The various "attributes" allow you to specify the string itself, as well as additional attributes pertaining to the string's appearance and behavior. The "attributes" string takes on the following format: name1:value1;name2:value2; ... ; namen:valuen The name/value pairs are as follows:
	IN: Specifies the direction toward which the text will enter the display. Possible values for "IN:" are as follows:
	LEFTWARD - Text scrolls toward the left (default).
	RIGHTWARD - Text scrolls toward the right.
	UPWARD - Text scrolls toward the top.
	DOWNWARD - Text scrolls toward the bottom.
	XLEFTWARD - Text does not scroll, but appears from the right toward the left.
	XRIGHTWARD - Text does not scroll, but appears from the left toward the right.
	YUPWARD - Text does not scroll, but appears from the bottom toward the top.
	YDOWNWARD - Text does not scroll, but appears from the top toward the bottom.
	YINWARD - Text does not scroll, but appears from the edges toward the center in the y direction.
	YOUTWARD - Text does not scroll, but appears from the center toward the edges in the y direction.
	XINWARD - Text does not scroll, but appears from the edges toward the center in the x direction.
	XOUTWARD - Text does not scroll, but appears from the center toward the edges in the x direction.
	YRINWARD - Text scrolls from the edges toward the center in the y direction.
	YROUTWARD - Text scrolls from the center toward the edges in the y direction.
	XRINWARD - Text scrolls from the edges toward the center in the x direction.
	XROUTWARD - Text scrolls from the center toward the edges in the x direction.
	NONE - Text does not scroll but simply appears.
	OUT: Specifies the direction toward which the text will exit the display. The values are the same as for the "IN:" parameter, except that the text is exiting instead of entering. "OUT:NONE" indicates that the text does not disappear.
	FONT: Specifies the font for the text. The format of this name/value pair is "FONT:name,style,size". "name" is any valid font name accepted by Java. "style" can be a combination of PLAIN, BOLD, or ITALIC, separated by a bar ("|"). "size" is the point size for the font. The default font is "FONT:Dialog,PLAIN,12".
	ANCHOR: Specifies a URL to which users can navigate if they click anywhere on the applet. The URL can be absolute (which means that the URL must contain an "http://" prefix), relative to the web server on which the applet resides (for example, "/~mydir/subdir/myfile.html"), or relative to the directory in which the applet resides (for example, "subdir/myfile.html"). Due to the limitations of Java, only "http://" prefixes are recognized; other prefixes such as "mailto:" are not allowed.
	FRAME: Used in conjunction with the ANCHOR: parameter, this parameter specifies a frame name into which the results of the ANCHOR: parameter will be loaded. Any valid HTML frame name can be specified, including "_self," "_parent," "_top," and "_blank." If neither an ANCHOR: name/value pair nor "<param name=Anchor ...>" are specified, this parameter will be ignored; however, if either is specified, this parameter will be used to set the target frame for this text parameter.
	TIMEZONE: Specifies to show the date for a particular time zone. The time zone information is specified as follows. All entries in brackets are optional, but if they are specified, the brackets are not to be included. [N][+/-]tz[,sm,sw,sd,st,em,ew,ed,et,shift] If "[+/-]tz" is specified by itself, the United States daylight savings time rules are applied.
	N: Indicates not to apply daylight savings time rules.
	+/-: Indicates either a positive or negative time zone offset. If neither is specified, a positive offset is assumed.
	tz: Indicates the time zone offset from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). This number is specified as "hh[:mm]".
	sm: Indicates the month (from 1-12) in which daylight savings time starts.
	sw: Indicates the week of the month in which daylight savings time starts. It may be from 1 to 4 to indicate the week from the beginning of the month, or -1 to -4 to indicate the week from the ending of the month. It may also be 0, which affects the "sd" parameter (see comments below for the "sd" parameter).
	sd: Indicates the day of the week (0 for Sunday through 6 for Saturday) in which daylight savings time starts. If the "sw" parameter is 0, this number is interpreted as the day of the month (1-31) in which daylight savings time starts.
	st: Indicates the time on which daylight savings time starts. This number is specified as "hh[:mm]".
	em: Indicates the month (from 1-12) in which daylight savings time ends.
	ew: Indicates the week of the month in which daylight savings time ends. It may be from 1 to 4 to indicate the week from the beginning of the month, or -1 to -4 to indicate the week from the ending of the month. It may also be 0, which affects the "ed" parameter (see comments below for the "ed" parameter).
	ed: Indicates the day of the week (0 for Sunday through 6 for Saturday) in which daylight savings time ends. If the "ew" parameter is 0, this number is interpreted as the day of the month (1-31) in which daylight savings time ends.
	et: Indicates the time on which daylight savings time ends. This number is specified as "hh[:mm]".
	shift: Indicates the amount of time to shift for daylight savings time. This number is specified as "hh[:mm]".
Some examples are as follows: "-5" - U.S. Eastern Standard/Eastern Daylight Time. "+0,3,-1,0,2:00,10,-1,0,2:00,1:00" - British Summer Time. "N+0" - GMT. "+10,10,-1,0,2:00,3,1,0,2:00,1:00" - Sydney Standard/Sydney Summer Time. "N+9" - Tokyo Standard Time.
	COLOR: Specifies the color for the text. The format of this name/value pair is "COLOR:r,g,b", where r, g, and b specify the red, green, and blue intensities of the color, respectively. The default color is "COLOR:255,0,0".
	SPEED: Specifies the speed, in milliseconds, at which the text should move. The format of this name/value pair is "SPEED:n", where n specifies the number of milliseconds between each movement of the scroll. The default speed is "SPEED:50" (50 milliseconds, or 1/20th of a second).
	PAUSE: Specifies a period, in milliseconds, during which the text should pause between the in and the out operations. The format of this name/value pair is "PAUSE:n", where n specifies the number of milliseconds to pause. The default pause is "PAUSE:0".
	FLASH: Specifies that the text should flash between the in and the out operations. The format of this name/value pair is "FLASH:a,b,c". "a" specifies a period, in milliseconds, to pause before flashing. "b" specifies the number of times to flash. "c" specifies a period, in milliseconds, to pause after flashing. If FLASH is specified, PAUSE must also be specified, because the text will flash on and off b times during the pause period. You can play around with these values to make the flash longer or shorter, faster or slower.
	STRING: Specifies the actual text. This must be the last name/value pair specified; everything after the "STRING:" will be used as the text. The section immediately following the parameters section discusses the special formatting codes which can be specified within text parameters. Either "STRING" or "RSTRING" may be specified, but not both.
	RSTRING: Provides the same functionality as the "STRING" parameter, except that the characters within the text string will be displayed in reverse order. For example, specifying "RSTRING:ABCD" will cause the applet to display the text as "DCBA". This feature is useful for international use, where some languages are read from right to left. Either "STRING" or "RSTRING" may be specified, but not both.
	BackColor: Specifies the background color for the display, where r, g, and b specify the red, green, and blue intensities of the color, respectively. The default color is black (0,0,0).
	LitColor: Specifies the "lit" color of the display, where r, g, and b specify the red, green, and blue intensities of the color, respectively. Specifying this parameter overrides the default color, which is red (255,0,0); however, specifying COLOR: in any of the text parameters overrides this color.
	UnlitColor: Specifies the "unlit" color of the display, where r, g, and b specify the red, green, and blue intensities of the color, respectively. The default color is dark gray (64,64,64).
	BorderColor: Specifies an RGB value for the raised border around the display. The r, g, and b values have the same meaning as for BackColor. The default color is light gray (192,192,192).
	BorderWidth: Specifies the width of the raised border around the display. The default border width is 6. If this parameter is specified, the WIDTH= and HEIGHT= settings should be adjusted accordingly.
	StrongBorder: Specifies whether you want black rectangles surrounding the inner and outer edges of the border (value=1, which is the default) or not (value=0; in this case, the "BorderWidth" parameter should be increased by 2).
	LEDSize: Specifies the size, in pixels, of the LEDs in the ticker display. The default size is 3. If this value is specified, the HEIGHT= setting should be adjusted accordingly.
	Speed: Specifies the default speed, in milliseconds, of the text. Specifying this parameter overrides the default speed, which is 50 milliseconds; however, specifying SPEED: in any of the text parameters overrides this value for that text parameter.
	Pause: Specifies the default pause period, in milliseconds. Specifying this parameter overrides the default pause period, which is 0; however, specifying PAUSE: in any of the text parameters overrides this value for that text parameter.
	Font: Specifies the default font for the text. The format is the same as that of the FONT: name/value pair. The default font is "Dialog,PLAIN,12". Specifying FONT: in any of the text parameters overrides this value for that text parameter.
	Anchor: Specifies the default URL to which users can navigate if they click anywhere on the applet. The format is the same as that of the ANCHOR: name/value pair. Specifying ANCHOR: in any of the text parameters overrides this value for that text parameter.
	Frame: Used in conjunction with "Anchor," this parameter specifies a frame name into which the results of the Anchor parameter will be loaded. The format is the same as that of the FRAME: name/value pair. Specifying FRAME: in any of the text parameters overrides this value for that text parameter.
	ScrollRight: Specifies that the default scrolling should be left to right rather than right to left. If the value of ScrollRight is set to "1", the default scrolling will be from left to right; if any other value is specified, or if ScrollRight is not specified, default scrolling is from right to left. Specifying IN: and/or OUT: in any of the text parameters overrides the default scrolling for that text parameter.
	TimeZone: Used in conjunction with the special formatting codes listed below, this parameter specifies to show the date and time for a particular time zone. The format is the same as that of the TIMEZONE: name/value pair. Specifying TIMEZONE: in any of the text parameters overrides this value for that text parameter.
	File: Specifies a file name from which the parameter information can be obtained. Each line in the file corresponds to one parameter, and takes on the format name=value. name is any valid parameter name (Speed, Pause, Font, etc.). The only two exceptions are 1) the "BackColor," "UnlitColor," "BorderColor," "BorderWidth," "StrongBorder," and "LEDSize" parameters are not allowed because they affect the entire applet; and 2) the name for text parameters is simply "Text," not "Textn" (but you can still specify as many text parameters as you wish). value takes on the same format as listed for each parameter above. See the examples below to see how this parameter can be used. Note that the file name specified must reside on the same server as the applet; this is a security restriction of Java which prevents applets from reading files on servers other than the host server.
	FileRefresh: Used in conjunction with the "File" parameter, this parameter specifies a time interval in seconds. Every time this time interval expires, the file specified in the "File" parameter will be re-read. This behavior is useful in situations where the file is changed frequently. One example of this would be a program running on the server which writes the latest news headlines or stock quotes into the file. If the user stays on that web page long enough for the interval to expire, he or she will start to see the new text strings. An additional effect of this parameter is that if the user navigates off the web page then returns to it at some later point in time, the file will be re-read as soon as the browser re-activates that page. Specifying "0" for this parameter is the same as the default behavior, which is to read the file only once, the first time the applet is loaded.
	Rstring: Specifies whether by default the characters within text strings will be displayed in reverse order. If the value of RString is set to "0", or if Rstring is not specified, test strings will be displayed in the order in which they are entered. If any other value is specified, text strings will be displayed in reverse order. Specifying RSTRING: in any of the text parameters overrides the behavior for that text parameter; for example, if "Rstring" is specified as a global parameter and RSTRING: is specified for a text parameter, that text string will be displayed in normal order.

In addition to specifying plain text, you can also specify special formatting codes within text parameters. These formatting codes allow you to embed the current date and time into text strings. The codes provide identical functionality to the C runtime library's strftime function, with the exception that %z and %Z (time-zone name or abbreviation) does not display anything. Possible values are as follows:

In addition, the percent sign may prefix any of the formatting codes. In that case, the meaning of the format code is changed as follows: