Be sure to read the Malted Distribution License.

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Malted v.3.0
(Nov, 2008
)

Malted 3 - Innovations

- Completly new Malted Editor to produce activities and courses

- The Interface of the new Editor is available in several languages (Spanish, English, Catalan, Basque,…)

- Improved compatibility of Malted installation in Windows 98.

- Units of secondary education in English have been reviewed and several mistakes fixed.

- Teacher´s Notes in the units of English have been rearranged and adopted the same organization

Malted v.2.6
(Nov, 2007)

Malted 2.6 - Innovations

- JRE and JMF have been embedded in Malted so allowing the units to be used from the CD without installation.

- Launcher has been upgraded as an exe program inside the Malted folder.

- Several Bugs have been fixed.

- A unique installer has been created for both Windos and Linux operating system, for the CD and the Web (it incorporates JMF in all the versions).

- Editor help provides more detailed information.

- Existing lessons updated and mistakes fixed.

- New lessons for English added: Tests, consolidation Units, Puzzles and Games.

- A new index unit gives access to other multimedia lessons.

- A new Didactic Gide has been added accessible from Index unit.

Malted v.2.5
(Nov, 2006)

Malted 2.5 - Innovations from 2.3

To install :

- The installation in Linux up to the 2.5 edition improved with JavaWebStart installing only the necessary components.
- The installation in Windows improved installing only the necessary programmes.
- The Java version included in the CD updated to the jre-1_5_0_09-windows i586-p.exe form for Windows and jre-1_5_0_09-linux-i586.bin for Linux which quickens the transition between the frames and improves the mechanics and stability of MALTED.
- Java Media Framework form updated to 2.1.1e version which improves the reproduction of mp3, which also includes Linux in Malted installation, therefore there is no need to install it.
- Tutorial updated to 2.5 version.

Malted Navigator (RTS)

- The popouttext and students checking window with new aspect, and changeable from cfg. Project.
- Improvements in the messages of the system. Possibility of choosing language through cfg. Project.

Malted Editor (DVE)

- Possibility of including substitute images in the media.
- New RTF publisher in Malted Publisher. Possibility of editing the texts in the frames edition of Malted Publisher.
- Acess to import multimedia files from the Malted Publisher included.
- Auto-actions for frames and panels included.
- New documented parameters included in Malted Tutorial.
- Installation of resources with new images and drawings updated.
- Edition of crosswords templates improved.
- New unit of templates replacing the previous, to create activities.
- New unit called Malted_25 which shows how templates work and the possibilities of Malted.

Malted v.2.4 (UCL)
(2004)

Malted v.2.3
(Oct 13, 2003)

Malted 2 - version 2.3 Innovations and Bugs Fixed

DVE and RTS
  • Mp3 recording enabled: In the Value of the recording action write the name of the file with the extension .mp3 and the file will be automatically created. (Creating an empty mp3 file beforehand in the audio folder of the project is not necessary).
  • New default entry page in Malted Navigator (introII)
  • The Action Course_select permits asigning a Value
  • Bug fixed:wouldn't select course when choosing Cancel in course_select
  • There is more information in the error message "No frames in project"
  • The button for First excercise in the blue menu is now capable of jumping to the first excercise in the course and if pressed again to the previous course.
  • Added a button in the blue menu for jumping to the default entry of Malted Navigator.
  • Default installation language of Malted is Spanish.
  • New Action added: Course_home (no value necessary)
  • Buttons in popout frames working correctly now.
  • Added new images and texts for license and copyright windows.
  • Descriptions for Actions and Interacctions are editable and translateable in Malted2/languages/properties.zip

LMS.
  • The LMS has been included in the Malted installation. To activate it it is necessary to insert the IP of the server where LMS is located in the file Malted2/config/LMS.cfg using " host=197.90.87.50 " for example.
  • Every project to be included in the LMS must have its own project.cfg file as well as a line in the html file indicating the route of the LMS_Learner.jar:
    ARCHIVE="classes/MaltedApplet.jar,classes/parser.jar,classes/jaxp.jar,classes/LMS_Learner.jar"

Malted v.2.0.3
(august 21, 2002)

Malted 2 - version 2.0.3 New Features and Bugs Fixed

DVE.
  • It is possible to generate an html file with the Malted applet call to a course. The file has the same name as the course but extension html.
  • Bug: Different frames with de same file name-ending in one course were considered as equal. Fixed.
  • Bug: The delete object action was not considering the user answer (yes/no). Fixed.
  • There is a new icon on the upper right corner of courses and frames to close them.
Match2 interaction.
  • There is a new parameter arrowNumber to configure the maximun number of arrows that the user can associate to a media when verify=onAssociation. The default value is arrowNumber=1.
  • The user can now associate only one arrow between two medias when verify=onAssociation. In previous versions the user could make any number of associations.
Transcription interaction.
  • There is a new parameter ignoreCase to configure comparisons on verifying. The default value is  ignoreCase=No.
Memory interaction.
  • The description of retry action was not correct. This is now fixed.
Applet and RTS.
  • When dragging an object the mouse cursor simulates the dragged object.
  • The animate action interprets a new parameter duration when there is no associated audio.

Malted v.2.0.2
(june 18, 2002)

Malted 2 - version 2.0.2 Bugs Fixed

Applet and RTS.
  • There was a bad visual effect when refreshing frames. The problem is now solved.
  • In FullScreen mode, some message windows (v.e. the score) appeared on the left upper corner of the screen. Now they appear centered.
Crossword2 interaction.
  • The correct and wrong sounds were not played on verify. Now when all answers are correct the correct sound is played, otherwise the wrong sound is played.

Malted v.2.0.1
(june 10, 2002)

Malted 2 - version 2.0.1 New Features and Bugs Fixed

Applet and RTS.
  • The images of the HangMan_001.template have been replaced with new ones provided by CNICE.
Memory interaction.
  • There is a new parameter  backCardImage to select de back cards image.
    The default value is images/maltedbg.jpg which the program finds in malted.jar.
  • The retry action was not working properly. It was turning the cards up instead of down.
    The problem is now solved.
GapFilling interaction.
  • There was a bug when the gap value had repeated consecutive chars (for example "11,000").
    The problem is now solved.

Malted v.2.0
(may 16, 2002)

Malted 2 - version 2.0 Bugs Fixed

Applet and RTS.
  • The embedded videos were being disposed when they arrived to the end. This was a bug introduced in beta 8.5 when popOut videos were made to close when arriving at the end.  The bug has been fixed.

Malted v.2 (beta 8.5)

Malted 2 - beta 8.5 New Features and Bugs Fixed

DVE.
  • When a course is saved, an html file with the same name but extension .html is created with the appropiate html applet call. If the file already exists, nothing is done. It is created in the project directory. The width and height attributes are the ones specified in the project.cfg frame_size.

  • All the export to the assetbase items have been removed from menu in the file config/menu.xml.

Applet and RTS.
  • The embedded videos and audios on a popOutFrame where not stopped when closing the popOutFrame. Now they are stopped and removed from memory.
  • When using several languages, in some cases a dialog appeared showing the message "filename not available". It was a bug and now it is fixed.
  • The "connect to assetbase" menu icon doesn't appear anymore.
  • The video windows are closed automatically at the end, as in older versions.
  • The video and audio windows have no title now, the name of the file is not displayed anymore.

Malted v.2 (beta 8.4)

Malted 2 - beta 8.4 New Features and Bugs Fixed

DVE.
  • The Add Container action now adds the new container on top of all others. Previous versions added the new container underneath the other containers.

Applet and RTS.
  • Remote access to files has been modified so that only http GET requests that are answered with OK (code 200) are considered correct. This means that redirections are not followed. The reson to do this is that the CNICE server redirects non-existing requests to an error web page (returning code 302) instead of actually saying that the file does not exist (returning code 404) which caused Malted to  read the official error web page of the server instead of knowing that the file is not present. The fact that certain files do or do not exist is important in Malted, particularly for the system of translations.

Malted v.2 (beta 8.3)

Malted 2 - beta 8.3 New Features and Bugs Fixed

goToCourse ACTION.
  • The goToCourse ACTION has been improved. Now if the VALUE has the form

    file:/[X]:/projects/projectName/xml/courseName.cxml"Insert the CD"

    then the corresponding course file is searched in all the disk drives of the computer (excluding floppies) from C: to Z:. If the course is found then it is executed, if it is not found then a dialog box appears with the message "Insert the CD". The dialog box has buttons OK and CANCEL. If the user clicks OK the programs searchs again in all drives, if the user clicks CANCEL the whole operation is cancelled.

Home Button (in the runtime menu).
  • As in previous versions, the home button in the menu navigates to the first frame of a course, but if it is already in the first frame then it navigates to the previous course, if there is one. This allows backward navigation not only inside a course but also between courses.
Liberation of Media Resources.
  • The sounds in Dictionary are now liberated just as all other resources.
Screen Refresh.
  • The images sometimes dissapeared when changing cards in RunAllDialog. This has been improved.
  • The refresh functions are now called more frequently in order to fix some refreshing problems that occured for example in the Match2 interaction (dragging images) or in the Memory Game.
Bugs.
  • Projects which were not subdirectories of a directory projects/ could not read video and audio files. The problem is solved.
  • Mouse clicks on TEXT objects where not responding well, it was not possible to use them for usual actions as courseLink. The problem is solved.
  • The hidden menu is working better now, it was throwing some exceptions.
  • The action clear in Transcription and GapFilling was working only when the panel and container were specified in VALUE. Now it works with an empty VALUE.

Malted v.2 (beta 8.2)

Malted 2 - beta 8.2 Bugs Fixed

Liberation of Media Resources.
  • An important change has been made in the order of liberation of media resources. The order used previously some times caused an internal crash that resulted in player errors ("unrealized player") and    memory leaks. The new order seems to work much better, resources are liberated immediately and the crashes have disappeared.
Screen Refresh.
  • The gaps in some GapFilling exercises disappeared after a language change. This has been fixed.
  • Some images dissapeared. This is fixed.
  • An extra call to a refresh function is now made to insure all changes in a frame are updated onto the screen.
Embedded media in DVE.
  • Embedded audios and videos in DVE were not presenting the audio and video icons. This may have caused other problems that resulted in the DVE being suddenly closed. The problem is fixed.

Malted v.2 (beta 8)

Malted 2 - beta 8 New Features and Bugs Fixed

Sound recording in Java.
  • A new recording system has been developed which does not require a external sound recorder program.
  • The new recording system includes a graphic interface similar to windows sndrec32 but with some differences. It can only be used for recording, not for loading and playing audio files. The graphic interface for recroding is called with the new ACTION record.
  • There is also a non-graphic recording method which is called by ACTION autoRecord.
  • The result of the recording is either automatically saved to a file or kept only in RAM accessible for playback through the new ACTION ramPlay.
  • With these new ACTIONs the new recording system provides four possible recording modes:
  1. Graphic interface with recording saved in a file.
    To use this mode the author must use the new ACTION record. This is done exactly in the same way as the old winRecord ACTION was used i.e. one puts as VALUE the name of the wav file in which the recording will be saved. The corresponding "play" can be done in a media object with the file as the value of AUDIO. 
  2. Graphic interface with recording saved only temporarily in RAM.
    To use this mode the author must again use the new ACTION record but with an empty VALUE and a non empty NAME. In this case no file is created. In order to play the recording it is necessary to have a button with the new ACTION ramPlay and VALUE equals the NAME given to the recording media object.
  3. Non-graphic interface with recording saved in a file.
    To use this mode the author must use the new ACTION autoRecord and specify in VALUE the name of a file in which to save the recording. At runtime the recording starts when the user clicks the button and continues until the button is clicked a second time. While the recording is being done the button changes colours and has label stop. When the recording is stopped the original colours and label of the button are recovered.  
  4. Non-graphic interface with recording saved only temporarily in RAM
    To use this mode the author must also use ACTION=autoRecord but with an empty VALUE but needs to give a NAME to the media object. The recording works exactly as in the previous case, however it is not saved in a file. In order to play the recording it is necessary to have a button with the new ACTION ramPlay and VALUE equals the NAME given to the recording media object.
  • In modes 1 and 3 the recordings done in one session can be played in future sessions. They are overwritten when a new recording is done over the same file. 
  • In modes 2 and 4 the recordings done (even if they are done in different cards) keep alive while the frame is alive but disappear when the runtime system goes to another frame.
  • These recording modes are illustrated in the modified Recording template.
  • The old winRecord ACTION is maintained but is not used any more in the Recording template.

Frame size and location.
  • An error was fixed on the size and location of Malted frames in popOutFrames. The size specified in a popOutFrame call was being adopted as the size of the whole window frame but the "centering" was being calculated as if it was the internal size.   Now the specified size becomes the internal size without the title and borders. Thus an author must specify the internal size from now on. This is particularly important when using FITSCREEN=false.
  • Another modification is that in all previous versions, when FITSCREEN was false and the size of the window was smaller that the size of the Malted frame, then the later did not appeared centerd but with its left upper corner coinciding with the left upper corner of the interior of the window. Now it always appears centered. This modifies the behaviour but in general the result is better, particularly when the user modifies the size of the window. 
Print.
  • A new printing system has been developed because the older one proved to be very unstable with respect to variations in JRE versions. The older system worked well in JRE 1.1, prints only in gray tones in JRE 1.3.1_01 and 1.4 and fails completely in JRE 1.3.1_02.
  • There printing user interface is the same as before. The user can call the printing function to print the contents of the screen from the main menu. Also when right click is done over a media object, the print option appears and if the user selects it the contents of the media object are printed. If the media object has a text area the whole contents of the text are printed, otherwise the visual aspect is printed.
  • The size of the printed image is calculated to fit the Malted runtime screen in the printing area, maintaining the width to height proportions. Thus a 800x600 Malted screen will appear bigger if printed in landscape orientation than in portrait orientation. When printing only a media object the printed image is located at top left of the printing area and the size is proportional to the area it occupies on the screen. In other words the media objects in a Malted frame are printed with the same size as they would appear in a printing of the whole frame. One exception is the printing of text areas which will print the whole text. This normally results in a longer (in the vertical sense) printed image than what the visible part would occupy.
  • The print function called from the "right click menu" in a popOutText prints the whole text fitting it to  the width of the printing area.
  • Note: The printing results may differ from the ones obtained with JRE 1.1.
  • Note: Some properties of the printer (in particular orientation) must be defined before calling the printer dialog from the Malted runtime, otherwise they are ignored. This is not a bug of Malted or Java. It seems to be a general bug in windows printing since the same phenomenon has been detected in programs written for example in Delphi.
GapFilling.
  • A bug has been corrected.
    The bug: If a language change was made in a popOutFrame generated from a GapFilling frame, when the frame was closed the screen appeared all jumbled.
    This bug was due to the use of an old refresh method which has now been replaced with the one currently in use throughout Malted.
Dialog interaction.
  • The RunAllDialog ACTION used to present a slider to indicate the progress of the dialog. The size and location of this slider was being calculated so that it occupied the with of the frame, started at the bottom of the panel and ended at the bottom of the frame. Only the parts of the slider that were not being covered by a media object were shown. The result was quite ugly. The slider has been removed in this version because it seems of little use and is visually unpleasant.
Memory handling.
  • Recent versions have produced some out of memory errors. They were due to a diminished frequency of calls to the garbage collector. This has been essentially corrected by calling the garbage collector in some places where the calls had been suppresed to insure quick response to user interaction. A compromise has been adopted which seems reasonable between quick reaction and efficient garbage collection.
  • All previous versions maintained in RAM the image resorces of all the cards of all the panels in a frame. In beta 8 this is no longer true, only the images of the active cards are kept in RAM. This puts a much smaller toll on RAM, particularly in frames with many cards in a panel like those used in Dialog interactions. This is done with little impact on speed when changing cards.
  • For these reasons the probability of an out of memory error in this beta 8 version is noticeably less than in beta 7 and also less than in all previous versions. However it is important to make the authors of Malted courses aware of what things consume excesive memory and may favour these undesirable out of memory errors.

Things that put a lage toll on RAM requirements.

  1. Large images. By large it is meant images that have a large area, even if they come in small files. Try to use small images. If only a part of the image is being shown, it is recommended to cut it so that it does not ocupy excesive memory.
  2. Recording modes 2 and 4 keep the recordings in RAM. If the exercise has many cards with a recording in each one and these recordings are being kept in RAM then this may cause an out of memory error. It is recomended that when the recording exercise has many cards, the recording should be done to files to avoid this problem. In general we do not recommend recording modes 2 and 4 except for isolated recording exercises.
  3. popOutFrames use memory on top of what is being used by the frame from which they pop out. Thus the use of frames poping out of other pop out frames is not recommended.
DVE.
  • There is a default text editor associated to txt, rtf and html files. It is write.exe.
  • The "right click menu" on a media file was showing the menu corresponding to a media object. This has been corrected and now it shows a menu with the options: edit, preview, rename and delete.


Malted v.2 (beta 7)

Malted 2 - beta 7 New Features and Bugs Fixed

Embedded Videos and Audios.
  • The new attribute EMBEDDED has been defined for MEDIA objects. Its values may be  yes and no,  the default value is no. When EMBEDDED is yes then:

    a) If the MEDIA object has a video, this video is opened and located inside the MEDIA object space and all other elements of the MEDIA object (label, image, text or audio) are ignored.
    b) If the MEDIA object does not have a video but it has an audio, then the audio is opened and located inside the MEDIA object space and all other elements of the MEDIA object (label, image or text) are ignored.
    c) If there is no video or audio then the EMBEDDED attribute is ignored.

    Embedded videos or audios can be used to allow simmultaneous interaction with them and other MEDIA objects located in the same frame. For example, a long video or audio may be shown embedded side by side to a text area containing its transcription. The student may start and stop the video or audio and at the same time browse the transcription using the text area scrollbars. Doing this without EMBEDDED videos or audios is quite tricky.

    There is an example of an embeded video in  templates | menu | functions | videos and and example of embeded audio in templates | menu | functions | audios

Animation.

  • A bug has been fixed in the animation ACTION. The delay in each card was much longer than the one specified by the author. Now the time delay defined by the author is respected and it is possible to obtain faster and better sinchronized animations.

  • Now it is possible to define animations with a specific time delay for each card. The same format is used to define an animation but the time delay now can be a sequence of numbers specifying the milliseconds to wait in each card. For example the VALUE parameter of a media object with ACTION="animate" could be defined as: VALUE=

    "panel(Help) delay(100,100,100,20,20,20,20) start(1,3) loop(4,7) finish(4,1)"

    meaning that the time delay of cards 1,2 and 3 is 100 milliseconds and the time delay of cards 4,5,6 and 7 is 20 milliseconds. This can be written in the more economical format:

    "panel(Help) delay(100,,,20) start(1,3) loop(4,7) finish(4,1)"

    If only one number is specified this is taken as the time delay for all cards. If the author writes less numbers than cards are in the animation, then the unspecified time delays are equal to the last one specified. If more numbers are written than the number of cards in the panel then the extra numbers are ignored.

Text Areas.
  • The text areas of media objects were not sensitive to the mouse in previous versions. Only their borders were sensitive. Now also the interior of text areas is sensitive to mouse actions and can be used for clicking, dragging, dropping etc, both at runtime and for editing. This opens new possibilities in most interactions and simplifies edition.
    Note: Text areas have their own mouse interaction for locating the caret and marking words and phrases. This functionality coexists with the new one proper to Malted interactions and edition.
Match2.
  • It is now possible to use text areas for Match2 both in drag and drop mode and in association mode. Note: in order for a text to appear in the "drop" media object it is necessary for it to have a text area.
GapFilling.
  • Several new parameters have been defined for this interaction: gapSeparation, gapALIGNMENT and adjustByLength.
  • gapSeparation defines the separation in pixels between the textfield of a gap and the next word or textfield. The default value is 1 so thet neighboring gaps may be distinguished from one another.
    Note: If gapSeparation=0 and gapBORDER=no then neighboring gaps appear as a single gap.
  • adjustByLength is a boolean parameter with values yes and no. It has meaning only when gapSize=0, which means that the size of the gap must be adjusted to the contents of the gap. In this case, the value yes makes the size of the gap be equal to the length of the content of the gap plus 4 pixels. The value no makes the adjustement by counting the number of letters, multiplying it by the length of the character 'm', which is normally the longest one in a font, and adding 4. If gapBORDER=yes then 4 more pixels are added to take into account the border of the text field.
    Note: If a gap has more than one possible solution, then in both cases the adjustment is done using the first solution. The default value is no.
  • gapALIGNMENT defines the type of alignment for the gaps. It's values may be left, center or right. If the value is not specified it aquires the alignment type of the MEDIA object, i. e. the alignment of the text.
DVE.
  • Text areas are now sensitive to button clicks during edition of frames. Before this version only the borders of text areas were sensitive.
  • The "Edit" menu now contains an "Edit" option when a frame is open. This "Edit" option activates the edit dialog box for the selected object, exactly as the edit option in the right click over an object.
  • The tag "Other" has been replaced by "Events" in the edit dialog box for media objects. (This has been done by editing the language/*.txt  files.
Bugs fixed.
  • The refresh of new frames was not always performed correctly. This was causing problems particularly with hiddenlinks. The problem has been solved.
    Note: This has brought a considerable improvement in the speed of presentation of new frames, particularly those with several cards in a panel like the menu of course templates.
  • In GapFilling: The size of gaps with border has been increased by 4 pixels to give enough space. Without this extra space in small gaps sometimes the letters appeared partially hidden.
  • In GapFilling: The behaviour with autoJump has been corrected to make edition always possible and comfortable.

Malted v.2 (beta 6)

Malted 2 - beta 6 New Features and Bugs Fixed

Installation.
  • Creation of an installation CD for Malted Authors. It works from an html file which proposes three installation executables: JRE, JMF and Malted2Setup.
  • The installation is completely automatic, in particualr it does not require a redefinition of the CLASSPATH environment variable. The same installation works in all Windows versions (from Win-95 up).
  • The subdirectories of MALTED_HOME have been cleaned up so only the necessary files have been included in this release. The files that have been removed are no longer used and may be removed from previous installations.
  • The dtd files and the runtime system images are now embeded in malted.jar and MaltedApplet.jar so it is not necessary any more to copy them into remote project dirs.
  • The size of all Malted executables has been reduced from 180 to 38 Kb.
Applet.
  • The applet has a new format to be called from a web page, which includes an installation of the JRE for the case when the browser doesn't understand Java. It detecs the user language and gives all messages in Spanish if it is the user language, otherwise the messages are given in English. It also detects if the JRE installed is addequate for Malted and if it isn't it offers a link to install the correct JRE. The applet is now a "signed applet" and thus is asks the user for permission. Once the applet has received permission to operate, it verifies if the JMF is installed and if it is not it offers a link to perform the installation.
    The prototype for calling the applet can be found in the applet calls at:

http://www.cnice.mecd.es/malted/ingles/

  • The signed applet has essentially the same functionality as the RTS with the exception of the following details:
    1. When the edit course and edit frame buttons are present in remote mode the applet gives a message saying that edition is not allowed in remote mode.
    2. Action execute does not work in the applet.
  • The applet writes it's date and time in the Java Console. This is so to provide information to the user on which varsion is being used to report possible problems.
  • The applet allows editing of frames and courses when it is working in local mode.
  • There is no need to edit the security.policy for the applet to work.
  • The menu of the MaltedApplet is now configurable in the same way as the menu of the RTS. The configuration is done in the project.cfg file.
Runtime.
  • A new executable MaltedRTSFullScreen has been developed. It works just as  RTSFullScreen.bat but without opening a command line window.
  • In Windows it is possible to associate the course extension .cxml to one of the executables: MaltedRTS, MaltedRTE or MaltedRTSFullScreen so that a double click on such a file (if it is properly localized) opens the executable and runs the course.
  • The RTSFullScreen has a minimizing button.
  • When Malted windows are minimized the toolbar shows the Malted icon.
  • The display of a new frame has been improved. In the case of "centered" displays the scene is shown centerd from the begining.
  • The winEMail action has been improved. A bug was solved to make it work in Outlook. On the other hand, now it is possible to send the contents of a text media object writing MEDIA.medianame.TEXT. where "medianame" is to be substituted by the NAME of the media object. The VALUE of the ACTION should be written in the form:

    mailto:myTutor@server.country?body=MEDIA.medianame.TEXT.

    The final dot is necessary for technical reasons. An example of this can be seen in the freeWriting template. There medianame=message.
    All this work OK both in Eudora and Outlook. However in Eudora one can also add ?subject=whatever... but Outlook only interprets one of these parameters so one must choose either to include the subject or the body but not both. In Outlook if one uses both parameters everything is included in the parameter that comes first.

  • The size, location and title of a popOutFrame may be controlled by the author. To do this, at the end of the VALUE one must add this information in double quotes, for example:

    "320x240,300,10,myTitle"

    All the comas are necessary, what goes betwwen the comas may be omited and in that case the program fills in the value using the default.
    This is exemplified in the "info" window of the Transcription template.

  • The title of a popOutText may be controlled by the author. To do this, at the end of the VALUE one must add it in double quotes, for example:   "myTitle".
    This is exemplified in the "key" windows of the Transcription template.
Audio.
  • Midi's were causing problems due to an error in the JRE and JMF installations. A new procedure was programmed to prevent this problem. The procedure looks for the file "soundbank.gm" which is not provided by the JRE installation and is misplaced by the JMF installation, and it is copied to the correct location. This is done automatically the first time a Midi file is played.
  • mp3 audios placed in http addresses were not completely reproduced, the final second was usually cut off. This prompted a modification of the caching system for remote execution. See Cache. The problem is now solved.
Cache.
  • A new cashing system has been developed for remote execution both by the applet and the RTS. The system creates a "Malted_cache" subdirectory of the user.dir. Almost every remote file is downloaded and copied into this subdirectory. All use af these files is done directly from the cache. When files are more than 2 hours old, the system checks if the original file has changed and if so the new version is downloaded, otherwise the time and date of the file is modified and it is not verified for another two hours. mp3 files bigger than 50Kb and mpeg files bigger than 1MB are not downloaded, instead they are reproduced by streaming.
  • The user may delete the Malted_cache directory at any time to regain disk space. A policy for automatic cash maintanance may be developed in the future.
Mouse Cursor.
  • The general behaviour of the cursosr has been improved.
  • The waiting cursor appears while the program is opening a new frame.
  • The hand cursor now appears over media objects when it has an AUDIO, VIDEO, ACTION or VALUE.
  • The dragging cursor doesn't disappear any more as it was happening in drag and drop interactions.

Interactions.

  • In the Gapfilling interaction it is now possible to navigate from one gap to the next one by using the tab keys. In previous versions this was not always possible.
  • In GapFilling there has two new parameters: gapPad and autoJump. gapPad defines the extra number of spaces to be added to a gap above the gapSize. The default value is 1. autoJump is a boolean value with default value no. If the value is yes then when the caret (or text cursor) reaches the size of the gap, it jumps to the next gap.
  • The Order interaction has been modified. Before this version when a phrase or word was dragged and dropped into the site of another one then the sencond one jumped to occupy the position of the first one, i.e. the ordering was done by swaping words or phrases. In this version the ordering is done by insertion, i.e.   the words or phrases are shifted to accomodate the one that was moved, maintaining their relative order.
  • In MultipleChoice, when it uses check boxes, then a click on the button changes the checkbox status just as if the checkbox itself was clicked.
  • The Match2 interaction has three new parameters: markUsed, markedFGCOLOR and markedBGCOLOR. The later only have meaning when markUsed=yes. In this case the options that have been used once change their color and background color according to the markedFGCOLOR and markedBGCOLOR defined. This new feature is exemplified in the Match_000.template (Drag and Drop).
  • The setLang action has been improved. Now, when called in the middle of an interaction,  it changes all media contents for those media that do not intervene in the interaction. Upon reload all media contents are translated. Thus if a course is designed in such a way that the various languages are only used in informative media objectes, then the translation works immediately at any time respecting the work of the student.
  • If the setLang action is called on a popOut frame or course, when this is closed, the new language is used immediately on the active frame just as if the setLang action was called from it. Thus it is possible to make a language change precisely by using a popOut for this purpose.
  • The actions verify and check have been uniformized as much as possible and a new  "verification" action solve has been developed.
    The verify action marks the correct answers of the student in the "correct" color and the incorrect answers in "wrong" color, but it does not provide the correct answers.
    The check action erases the incorrect answers and marks the correct ones.
    The solve action puts the correct results everywhere, turning marking in "correct" color the ones that were correctly written by the student and into "wrong" color those who weren't.
    verify and check work in GapFilling, Crossword2, Crossword and MultipleChoice.  The solve action works only in GapFilling and Crossword2.
  • In Crossword and Crossword2 the verify action has been modified as described above.
  • The score window now has as title "Score" instead of "Malted message".
Bugs in Interactions that have been corrected.
  • The verify action sometimes openend twice the message windows.
  • The Hangman interaction didn't work on popOut frames and in the DVE preview.
  • The media objects sizes were not correctly handled in drag and drop and in associations. Sometimes a correct association would be dismissed or dropping an object in one place would result in it going to a neighbor place.
  • Correct and Wrong sounds sometimes were not heard in the Multiple Choice interaction.
  • In Gapfilling a resizing of the windows would not resize correctly the gaps.
  • In Gapfilling there was an error in the calculation of gaps when the gapSize=0. Now it works correctly, calculating the correct size of every gap according to the size of the longest option.
Courses.
  • The frame variable score used in conditional links is now initialized as -1 instead of 0, to differentiate the situation when the student has not clicked the verify button from the situation when the score is actually zero.
DVE.
  • When a new frame is created, the necesseray assets are automatically imported.
  • The open project action opens a disk navigator that shows with a special icon those directories which are Malted projects. The user can then select any one of these on any location. It is possible to edit courses in any one of these projects.
    A problem remains. It is not possible to stop navigation into the project directory. However the special icons for projects lessens this inconvenience.
  • Now it is possible to import frames or courses from a project in any location. (In previous versions this was possible only from Malted/projects.
  • In the preview of frames with interaction having a "verify" button, the interactions were not working properly. This bug has been fixed.

 

Malted 2 - beta 5 New Features

Malted 2 - beta 4.3 New Features/Bugs Fixed

Malted 2 - beta 4.2 New Features/Bugs Fixed

Malted 2 - beta 4.1 Bugs Fixed

Malted 2 - beta 4 New Features

Malted 2 - beta 3 New Features

TheWeather.txt
_______________________________________________________________________________
9x9
[  ]*[ 1]H[ 2]O[ 3]T[  ]*[ 4]F[ 5]E[ 6]D[  ]*
[ 7]G[  ]A[  ]L[  ]E[  ]*[ 8]A[  ]I[  ]R[ 9]Y
[10]N[  ]I[  ]*[11]M[  ]I[  ]L[  ]*[12]O[  ]E
[13]C[  ]L[14]A[  ]P[  ]*[15]L[16]I[  ]P[  ]S
[  ]*[  ]*[  ]A[  ]*[  ]*[  ]*[  ]N[  ]*[  ]*
[17]T[18]H[  ]A[19]W[  ]*[20]S[  ]N[21]O[22]W
[23]A[  ]E[  ]*[24]I[  ]C[  ]E[  ]*[25]W[  ]E
[26]R[  ]A[27]I[  ]N[  ]*[28]A[29]U[  ]N[  ]T
[  ]*[30]T[  ]A[  ]D[  ]*[31]S[  ]I[  ]S[  ]*
Across
 1.It feels like this when 3 Down is high and there is a lot of 18 Down around
 4.Gave food to
 7.Strong wind, like on the ocean
 8.Breezy and open
10.Northern Ireland (abbr.)
11.Million (abbr.)
12.Old English (abbr.)
13.Loud noise, like a bolt of thunder; or to put your hands toguether for applause
15.You speak with these
17.This happens in the spring, when frozen things turn into water
20.Frozen water that falls as flakes
23.Arts and Entertainment (abbr.)
24.Frozen water that is solid
25.Us; you and me
26.Water that has come toguether and fallen
28.She's often married to uncle
30._pole, a baby frog
31.She's related to 'bro'
Down
 1.Frozen water that falls like hard, round stones
 2._'Yeller
 3.Temperature (abbr.)
 4.During this season, it gets coulder and leaves turn color
 5.Either (abbr.)
 6.26 Across comes in a little 'package' like this
 7.General Nutrition Center (abbr.)
 9.Positive answer; opposite of no
14.American Automobile Association (abbr.)
16.Small and couzy hotel
17.Black stuff used to put a roof toguether
18.Energy that makes things warm
19.The strong movement of a lot of air
20.Most of the water on earth, and the weather, comes from these
21.Has, possesses
22.Covered with water
27.Iowa, on a letter
29.University of Illinois (abbr.)
_______________________________________________________________________________

Malted 2 - beta 2 New Features

Malted 2 - beta 1 New Features

The following (text in light gray) is no longer necessary after v.2 beta 6:

For the MaltedApplet to be fully functional you must grant some permissions by including:

grant codeBase "file:/C:/Malted2/classes/MaltedApplet.jar" {
  permission java.awt.AWTPermission "showWindowWithoutWarningBanner";
  permission java.awt.AWTPermission "accessClipboard";
  permission java.io.FilePermission "<<ALL FILES>>", "execute";
  permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "queuePrintJob";
};

in your file C:\WINDOWS\.java.policy If you dont have such a file, create it as a plain text file and include these lines.

If you have completed the installation instructions you can now visits some Malted Applets:

  • Templates.
  • Malted2Examples.

Here are links to older readme files which contain important information:

Readme_v.1.4.txt
Readme_v.1.3.txt
Readme_v.1.2.txt
Readme_v.1.1.txt