Summary
Virtlab depends heavily upon the nature of your browser. You must enable cookies and
Javascript. Even then, some browsers perform better than others (largely because of differences in the Javascript DOM).
We have tried hard to support as many browsers as possible and always test against the latest version
of Internet Explorer and Firefox. Opera seems to work well, but Safari continues to cause us problems (see below).
We recommend that Macintosh users download
Firefox for the Macintosh.
Visual simulations (the "Laboratory" tab) require a recent version of the Flash Player.
Model building (the "Models" tab) requires an electronic spreadsheet. We developed our models using
Microsoft Excel, but most spreadsheets
can accept and convert Excel files. Model building is a slightly more advanced part of Virtlab training. We hope you will
try it and enjoy it!
Browsers
Browser Settings: All flavors of cookies (both RAM and disk-based) should be permitted by your browser.
This is the default setting for most browsers. We use cookies to maintain continuity between pages and sessions.
Javascript must be enabled. This is the default setting for most browsers. In order to support as many screen
resolutions as possible, Javascript is used to create moveable and resizeable windows.
Internet Explorer: Virtlab has been tested against Internet Explorer versions 6 and 7. We have encountered
no problems.
Mozilla/Firefox: Virtlab has been tested against Firefox versions 1.5 and 2.0. We have encountered
only one problem in our formal testing. If you attempt to open the simulation window to its maximum possible size, Firefox will
sometimes freeze. We recommend that simulation not occupy more than one-third of your browser window.
We have also seen one kiosk version of Firefox 2.0 that did not permit the Flash
simulation to resize (e.g., the simulation present in the "Acid Base Titration" window at
http://www.virtlab.com/index.aspx).
The window would resize but the laboratory contents would not resize. We have been unable to reproduce this effect in our environment.
We did notice, however, that the Firefox configuration was quite unusual and lacked numerous menus and features normally present in
Firefox.
Opera: Opera has not been extensively tested, but a reasonably thorough "drive through" found no problems.
We have, however, seen one student laboratory configuration of Opera in which the resizing handles of the "Acid Base Titration" window at
http://www.virtlab.com/index.aspx were offset (by a few millimeters) from the window frame itself.
It was a cosmetic problem only, and we were unable to reproduce the effect in our environment.
Safari: If you are on a Macintosh you are familiar with the Safari browser. We have encountered several problems with
Safari that we are still unable to fix. If you examine the "Instructions" window at
http://www.virtlab.com/index.aspx you will see that it contains two scrollable regions --
"Introduction" on the left and "Figures & Footnotes" on the right. Clicking on a hyperlinked footnote or figure/table reference in the left region
should autoscroll the right window to the appropriate relevant text. Unfortunately, this does not happen in Safari. This is a known problem in
Safari and there is Javascript-based fix. Alas, this fix does not appear to work in our resizeable windows. We are still exploring this issue.
You can manually scroll to the appropriate region in Safari or you can use
Firefox for the Macintosh where this problem does not occur. There are several other
positioning problems with Safari. Animated (Flash) figures that are placed in the "Figures & Footnotes" scrollable region do not position
properly. There is no workaround for this other than moving to the Firefox browser.
Other Browsers: We have tried hard to use techniques and libraries that are compatible across many browsers. We do not
anticipate that you will find serious incompatibilities with modern browsers (Safari seems to be an unusual exception). Please let us know, however,
of any unusual behavior that you encounter.
Flash Plugin
Virtlab Flash simulations were developed using Flash 8 and Actionscript 2.0. It is available for virtually all browsers and
is often a default presence in modern browsers. The most recent version of the Flash player is free and is available at
http://www.adobe.com
Electronic Spreadsheets
The electronic spreadsheet was once defined by Alan Kaye as a
"tissue-like superobject". It is an extraordinarily friendly way of performing "what-if" calculations
and it offers you the opportunity to design and explore your own simulations and "thought experiments" in Virtlab.
There are many guided exercises of this sort in the "Models" tab of Virtlab.
While Microsoft Excel was used to develop the models used in Virtlab you should be able to find
other spreadsheet software that supports the Excel file format (use your favorite search engine and
look for "spreadsheet software").
Contact Us
You are always welcome to contact us with comments and questions. The email address for Virtlab's editor is
dbarkley@virtlab.com