FLASH or JAVA programmers:
Please read about and join our newly proposed
Tessellation Applet Project.

COMPENSATION: This project is non-paying work, except in the form of advertising and praise for you, your company, or your school or class.

The "advertising" mentioned above might include links on this site to your site or email, praise, and company or personal logo and profile. Advertising may appear in HTML on the same page as the program, or within the JAVA or FLASH program itself. On a case-by-case basis, we may also consider purchasing any books you might need in order to write the applet.

The primary location that your Flash or Java program will appear is us, here: Tessellations.org, an immensely popular graphic arts site viewed by 8,000 to 18,000 unique visitors PER DAY. The site's front page is ranked by Google as "pagerank 5". This is roughly the same visitor volume and exactly the same pagerank as the front page of Google's search engine for all of Thailand (www.Google.co.th ). Tessellations.org is also the very top-ranked site when you search Google for "tessellations", and currently #4 when you Google for "tessellation".

The site is primarily visited by primary and secondary school art and math teachers and students.

Because Tessellations.org is "guaranteed kid friendly", if a link to your site appears on this site, your site must also be kid-friendly. That basically means this site should not contain or link to anything sexual, violent, or patently offensive that would cause Little Johnny to ask his parents uncomfortably mature questions, cause Little Johnny to be able to answer those uncomfortable questions more accurately or more colorfully than his parents and teachers might, or encourage Little Johnny to set fire to the house/dog/teacher/homework/neighborhood.

FUNCTION: The applet's function is to visually help kids and adults make tessellations. The applet should be written as an applet within a webpage, to be used online.

The first version of the applet should, be at least as feature-rich as this Java applet one at Shodor.org.

By completion, the applet should be at least as feature-rich as Kali written in Java by Mark Phillips, AND also include:

• the option to save/export the images to a pixel-based (jpeg, png, gif) or vector-based (SVG, EPS) format compatible with most popular graphics painting programs,
• offer more color variety,
• an erase tool,
• a rotate/stretch tool, and
• better drawing tools.

Note that Mark Phillips' version of the tessellation program "Kali" is written in Java, and is (verified by email from him) Open Source. Java sourcecode and documentation for Prof. Phillips' tessellation applet is provided! I believe I have permission from the author (via email) to use and/or upgrade this program and its sourcecode, so you should feel free to use that sourcecode as a starting point.

You can read a review of Kali here. Be aware that the version reviewed is the non-applet, standalone Windows version, not Mark Phillips' Java applet.

We require that the final applet will be Open Source if Mark Phillips' Java applet is used as a starting point. If the end product is not open source, then the webmaster(s) of Tessellations.org should at least have a copy of the sourcecode and permission to continue future development with a different programmer of the webmasters' choosing (in case you become unavailable from eating poisonous toadstools, hangovers following Easter Break drinking binges, yada yada yada).

The program should be easy to use and intuitive. Put yourself in the shoes of a kid whose primary language may not be English.

We would be delighted to offer any necessary support, including custom-made icons and online research.

If written in Java, the final applet should NOT require unusual, hard-to-find, and non-free Java add-ons: remember that the users include preteens in poor schools. Don't deprive them of their lunch money.

Java or Flash programmer, if you'd like to do this project, please contact .

Please enjoy our site - Seth & David