Preferred means of running program

All variants provided for running the Unravel program utilize the same set of java archives (jar files). Although the program can be run from a batch of class files (as is necessary in development) that is not recommended as it would involve unzipping the main jar file and provides a negligible program execution start-up time advantage and speed of operation.

There are basically three ways of running the Unravel program as indicated in the following table.

Option Mode Description
1 Applet Intended only to be run from website under browser control.
2 Downloaded application Run using Web Start (referred to as UnraveJ WebStart).
3 Downloaded application Run directly from executable jar file (referred to as UnravelJ Direct).

These options are compared in the Comparison of running options topic.

Except for unscrambling cubes of small size, Applet mode (Option 1) is recommended only for initial evaluation.

To transfer the Unravel program to the user's local computer, Web Start (Option 2) is a very suitable method. It provides proper program installation, requires only one mouse click from the website to initiate the download of the small JNLP file (urvbwbs.jnlp) required for initiating the launch of the application. Actual launch of the Unravel program is done at the user's computer without the need to have the website open via a browser. Web Start is designed to work on all platforms. The most common criticism of Web Start relates to the relatively long start-up time incurred when the program is run.

Unscrambling cubes, except those of very small size, is likely to involve many program start/stop cycles and the start-up delay incurred by Web Start could be an irritation. To avoid this, running the program off-line directly from the executable jar file (Option 3) can be used. However, there is more work in initial setting up for this option than for standard Web Start operation and for non-Windows users there is provision only for running the program uninstalled. Option 3 is the preferred one for the developer. Setting up for Option 3 can be achieved in various ways as outlined in the Running direct from Java archive topic.

Both Option 2 and Option 3 implementations can be resident on the user's computer at the same time even though they would share the same application work area for data storage. Default desktop shortcuts have different names (UnravelJ WebStart and UnravelJ Direct respectively). Where applicable, Start Menu shortcuts are also different. Furthermore, the earlier Unravel program developed using C++ and also available for web site download (Windows users only) can also be installed simultaneously with the Java versions without any storage conflicts. When the C++ version is installed, a shortcut named UnravelC will be placed on the desktop.