Defines a small applet that draws mazes built using a variety of generating algorithms and a selection of geometries. This is a kind of tour-de-force in the Strategy design pattern.

There are two geometries for the maze.

• Rectangular is the usual 2-dimensional tiling of squares.
• Hexagonal is a more complex, but still 2-dimensional tiling of hexagons.

There are three filler algorithms.

• Simple fills the maze by generating a straight stretch and an intersection. It simply gives up when it finds an edge or a crossing hall. Mazes tend to be sparse.
• Kinked fills the maze by generating a short straight stretch that may be punctuated by non-intersection turns. It simply gives up when it finds an edge or a crossing hall. Mazes tend to be sparsely filled, but reasonably twisty.
• Retry is a variation that backs up when an edge or a crossing hall is found. Mazes tend to be well-packed.

The algorithm is parameterized with a branching factor. A 100% branching factor leads to very short sections between intersections. A 0% branching factor leads to a boring maze - more of a path.

A filler algorithm can also have a plug in storage mechanism.

• Depth-First uses a FIFO stack to finish a complete path before doing another path.
• Breadth-First uses a LIFO queue to expand each path end "fairly".

Package Specification

This applet can be displayed using any of the following approaches.

• The original <applet> tag. Deprecated in HTML 4.0 This requires that the appropriate JRE is correctly installed and configured.
• The <object> tag. This permits a browser to download the necessary Java plug-in. Currently, only IE seems to support this.
• The Netscape-unique <embed> tag. This permits Netscape-family browsers (Netscape, Firefox, Mozilla, etc.) to download the necessary Java plug-in.

This applet uses the following parameters.

• h. The horizontal extent of the maze. Example value="12"
• v. The vertical extent of the maze. Example value="12"
• fill. The fill algorithm. Choices are "depth" and "breadth". Example value="depth"
• strategy. The fill strategy. Choices are "retry", "kinked" and "simple". Example value="Kinked"
• branch. The branching factor, between 0 and 100. Example value="50"
• tiling. The tiling. Choices are "rect" and "hex". Example value="Hex"

Applet Sample

The following shows the HTML <applet> embedding for this applet.

<applet code="maze/MazeApp.class" width=320 height=340 archive="mazemaker.jar">
<param name=h value="12">
<param name=v value="12">
<param name=fill value="depth">
<param name=strategy value="Kinked">
<param name=branch value="50">
<param name=tiling value="Hex">
</applet>

Object Sample

The following shows the dynamic versioning HTML <object> embedding for this applet.

<OBJECT classid="clsid:8AD9C840-044E-11D1-B3E9-00805F499D93"
    width="320" height="340" align="baseline" 
    codebase="http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/autodl/jinstall-1_4-windows-i586.cab#Version=1,4,0,0">
    <PARAM name="code" value="maze/MazeApp.class">
    <PARAM name="archive" value="mazemaker.jar">
    <PARAM name="type" value="application/x-java-applet;version=1.4">
    <PARAM name="scriptable" value="true">
<param name=h value="12">
<param name=v value="12">
<param name=fill value="depth">
<param name=strategy value="Kinked">
<param name=branch value="50">
<param name=tiling value="Hex">
        <i>Either this is not IE, or there is no Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition v 1.4.x support.</i>
</OBJECT>

Embed Sample

The following shows the HTML <embed> embedding for this applet.

<EMBED type="application/x-java-applet;version=1.4" scriptable=true
    width="320" height="340" align="baseline" 
    code="maze/MazeApp.class" archive="mazemaker.jar"
    pluginspage="http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.1/download.html"
    
    h="12" 
    v="12" 
    fill="depth" 
    strategy="Kinked" 
    branch="50" 
    tiling="Hex">
<NOEMBED>
   <i>Either this is IE, or there is no Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition v 1.4.x support enabled.</i>
</NOEMBED>
</EMBED>

Related Documentation

See Using OBJECT, EMBED and APPLET Tags in Java Plug-in