[BUG] JavaView

[Martin Jackson]

In multivariate and vector calculus, students often need to visualize 
geometry in three dimensions.  This is a big challenge for many 
students and it can be difficult to assess if each student is 
visualizing a correct picture.  In class, I try perspective drawings 
on the board, physical models, and lots of "air drawing".  For some 
time, I've been looking for a way to put 3D images that can be 
rotated on a web page.  This summer, I've been playing with JavaView 
written by Konrad Polthier.  Here's his description:

>JavaView is a 3D geometry viewer and a mathematical visualization software.
>The web-integration allows display of 3D geometries and interactive
>geometry experiments in any HTML document on the internet.  JavaView also
>runs as application on local computers from a Unix or Dos command prompt.
>The open API of JavaView enables a smooth integration as 3D viewer and
>advanced visualization toolkit into commercial software like Mathematica
>and Maple.

I've found JavaView to be a very nice tool for my purposes.  I am 
familiar with Mathematica so I can take advantage of the built-in 
integration between JavaView and Mathematica.  (There are lots of 
examples on on the JavaView website at http://javaview.de   You can 
alos go to 
http://www.math.ups.edu/~martinj/calcphys/calcphysextras.html
if you want to see what I've done so far.)  I particularly like the 
way JavaView handles arrow heads on 3D vectors.

I recommend exploring JavaView if you are interested in producing 
interactive 3D images for a multivariate or vector calculus course.

Martin