irrGardener -- the de·caff Maze Creation Program

maze example

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • New Name, Same Game
  • Legal Stuff
  • Features
  • Download
  • Sources
  • Version History
    •

    Introduction

    irrGardener is a Java program which allows to create and print out different kinds of mazes. Kids usually love solving mazes, so you can create a bunch of them and give them away. It may be run either via Java Web Start or as a standard application. Because I wrote this program to learn more about the new features in Java 1.5 it requires Java 1.5 or newer to run.

    I had various request for the sources of this program, so when I decided to overwork this page and the sources to remove all references to the former name of this program I also decided to open its sources, so if you are interested you can download them and try to improve them. Good luck.

    New Name, Same Game

    I was asked politely by the author of another (probably much more successful) maze creation program to change the name of my program to avoid confusing his customers. So now my program is called "irrGardener" which is a word not found by Google at the time of this writing (December 19, 2006).

    The name derives from German "Irrgarten" which is an old German word for "maze" and is build from two terms:

    • "Garten" which means (as you probably have guessed) "garden" and
    • "irr" which is a shortcut of the verb "verirren" meaning "to get lost" in English

    So "Irrgarten" means as much as "a garden where one gets lost", and just a little step further "irrGardener" means as much as someone who builds a maze, i.e. a "Maze Creator" (the name this humble tool was christened before). Following the link will bring you to the homepage of the original (and now hopefully only) Maze Creator program, and it may be of interest to you that the author also provides a site called www.freemazes.com where he publishes links to several free maze sites and tools.

    Legal Stuff

    You are entitled to use irrGardener any way you like. You are doing that at your own risk. There is no guarantee. If you encounter problems or have suggestions you may drop me a note (click here to write Rammi an email) but don't expect an answer immediately.

    You may even try to improve it on your own.

    Features

    At the moment the following kinds of mazes are supported:

    • Rectangular maze: a maze with square cells and a rectangular border. These are like the mazes I drawed on squared paper when I was a kid myself.
    • Triangular maze: a maze with triangle cells and a triangle border.
    • Hexagonal maze: a maze with hexagonal cells and a roughly rectangular border.
    • Octogonal maze: a maze with octoggonal and square cells and a roughly rectangular border.
    • Diamond maze: a maze with square cells turned 45 degrees and a roughly rectangular border.
    • Circular maze: a maze with cells which are sections of concentric rings, like the one above. There is the possibility to leave the center open in order to create a "ring maze"

    You can tune each kind of maze to contain more or less cells. You can set the start (left mouse button) and end point (right mouse button) of the solution and set the colors for display and printing. There is always one and only one way between two points of the maze: the solution. It's possible to display this solution.

    Download

    Java Web Start

    The preferred way to run this program is via Java Web Start which is included in the Java 1.5 JRE which you need anyway. Programs run via Java Web Start have two advantages:

    1. You will be automatically informed when there is a new version available. Usually this new version is just downloaded and used instead of the outdated one.
    2. Java Web Start runs the program in a sandbox which means that its means of access to your computer and the internet are restricted to prevent you from harm.

    Icon of maze
    Click here to start irrGardener via Java Web Start

    Direct Application

    If you don't like Java Web Start for any reason, you can download the program directly. You will get a file named irrGardener.jar which you may usually run via double-clicking it in your GUI or from a commandline with the simple command

    java -jar irrGardener.jar

    The main disadvantage is that the program may do anything it likes with your computer. Even if I promise you that the program is not meant to do any harm (which I do, of course), are you sure you may believe any faceless person from the Internet?

    Having warned: click here to download irrGardener.jar [155,651 bytes from Sunday, 02-Jan-2011 16:08:32 CET]
    (some browsers may require rightclick and "Save link as..." to download correctly).

    Sources

    Since December 19, 2006 the sources of this program are open.

    Download

    Sources: src-irrGardener.zip [124,183 bytes from Sunday, 02-Jan-2011 16:08:51 CET]

    UML-enhanced javadoc: doc-irrGardener.zip [2,168,765 bytes from Sunday, 02-Jan-2011 16:08:50 CET]

    Instructions

    Compiling the sources requires a JDK 1.5 or newer from Sun.

    1. Download the sources archive src-irrGardener.zip from above
    2. Create a new directory
    3. Unpack the archive into the directory
    4. Either use the provided ant build file build.xml with target jdoc or download the doc-irrGardener.zip archive containing an UML-enhanced version of the standard javadoc from above and unpack it into the directory, too.
    5. View the package description of the de.caff.maze package in the javadoc documentation as an intro.
    6. Use your usual means to manipulate the source.
    7. Have fun!

    Version History

    DateVersionInfo
    Thu Sep 24 19:19:29 CEST 2009 1.01.00b Added possiblity to save a maze as an PNG image, thanks to a request from a user.
    Tue Dec 19 19:32:43 CET 2006 1.00.06b Changed program name to irrGardener. First release of sources.

    Latest change of this page: Sunday, 02-Jan-2011 16:08:30 CET