BTools
Miscellaneous Java Utility Classes
Copyright © 1998-2001, Ben Burton
Website last updated 7 October 2001
BTools is simply a collection of Java utility classes that
I have found useful. Everything can be used with JDK 1.1 and
upwards (a JDK less than 1.2 will require the swing (JFC)
classes also). Highlights include:
- A console GUI component used to communicate with modules
that perform text line-by-line processing;
- Dialogs for displaying long message boxes, collecting user
input and selecting a look-and-feel;
- An option set designed to handle various types of options
other than strings;
- An edit menu that links to a particular text component;
- A set of standard images and licenses with means for viewing
them;
- Filename filters, screen positioning utilities, specialised
document classes, cell renderers and so on.
An example of software that uses BTools is the
Regina
normal surface theory calculator.
- Binaries:
To use the BTools classes, JRE >= 1.1 is required.
If the JRE is < 1.2 (Java2) then the JFC (Swing) classes
must also be present.
- Sources:
To compile BTools, you only need the binary requirements
listed above plus a Java compiler.
To get the most value out of the Makefile however you will
require a GNU-compatible make as well as unix-like
tools cat, rm and touch.
All downloads are available from the
SourceForge
project site.
- Binaries:
The precompiled classes can all be found in the single archive
btools-version.jar which can be downloaded from
the btools package on the SourceForge project site.
Placing this jar on the classpath will allow other applications
to use the BTools classes.
- Sources:
The BTools sources can be found in the jar archive
btools-version_src.jar which can be downloaded
from the btools package on the SourceForge project site.
To extract the sources, type
jar -xf btools-version_src.jar.
The sources will be extracted into the directory
btools-version/.
Instructions for compilation are included in
btools-version/README.txt.
Only the javadoc-generated documentation is available, but this is
fairly extensive. It can be viewed here online.
There are two ways of obtaining this documentation on your machine.
- You can download the single archive
btools-version_doc.jar
from the btools-docs package on the
SourceForge
project site.
To extract the files, type
jar -xf btools-version_doc.jar.
The documentation will be extracted into the directory
btools-version/docs/.
- You can generate it from the sources. Move to the main
btools-version/ directory and type
make docs. The documentation will be created in the
subdirectory docs/.
BTools
Miscellaneous Java Utility Classes
Copyright © 1998-2001, Ben Burton
BTools has been released under the
GNU General Public License.
It is hereby explicitly allowed that this software may be run
with any implementation of the core Java classes (the classes that
implement the official Java API) without the GPL applying to that
implementation of the core Java classes.
I can be reached at
bab@debian.org.
Please let me know of any suggestions, problems, bugs, wishes,
frustrations or otherwise miscellaneous comments you have. I can't
improve the software unless I know what needs improving!
If you have written additions yourself and think they could be useful
in the general release, I would love to hear about them. The more the
merrier!
- Ben Burton (bab@debian.org)