A Java-Based Implementation of Collaborative Active Textbooks

A t VL'96, we presented CAT, a system f o r bidding Web-based collaborative active textbooks on algorithms. CAT augmented the expressiw power of Web pages f o r publishing passive milltimedia information with a fullfledged interactive algorithm animation system. Views of a running program could reside on different machines, which made CAT particularly well-suited for electronic classrooms. In such a setting, a teacher would control the animation, while students would view the animation by pointing their Web brorvsers at the appropriate page. CAT was based on our in-house family of Web browsers, which supports applets written in Obliq, a distributed scripting language. This paper describes a Java-based implementation of CAT, which can be used with standard Web browsers.