Democritus was designed as a web document to be run within a web browser on whichever machine the user happens to have. The dynamical parts are written in Java, which is a platform independent language, so Democritus will run on any platform supporting the required Java implementation, Java 2 (version 1.3 or above).

On the Windows/x86 platform, neither of the most popular web-browsers ( Netscape & Internet Explorer ) provide an implementation of the Java 2 standard, so it is necessary to install the Java 2 Runtime Environment which may be downloaded at no charge. The following steps are recommended to provide support for Democritus.

You will also need the Shockwave Flash plugin. It is pre-installed on new browsers, but you will have to download it if you have an old version.

Some pages use the Wide Latin font. If your computer doesn't have that font installed, the pages might look a bit 'poor'.

Windows/Solaris

• Download the Java plug-in version 1.3 from here.
The link takes you to the front page of the Java 1.3 plugin. From there you can follow the appropriate link for your operating system. It doesn't matter which version (US or internationalized) you get.
• Close your browser and install the Java plug-in.
Sun's homepage has installation instructions for Windows and Solaris SPARC/x86 systems.

Other operating systems.

The status of ports to other platforms is continuously changing but implementations of Java 2 are being produced for most environments.

Sun maintains a list of ports of the Java environment at http://java.sun.com/cgi-bin/java-ports.cgi that contains information about the status or existence of implementations of Java 2.

If you are using Microsoft's Internet Explorer and don't have the plug-in, the browser will download and install the plug-in automatically.

If you are using any other browser or an operating system different than Windows, you will have to download the setup file. If you are not automatically forwarded to the download site, you will find the plug-in at Macromedia's download centre. Then click on the file you downloaded and follow the setup instructions.

A copy of the font file can be found here.
In the case of Windows, after you unzip the file (latinwd.ttf) you have to add it to your font directory. There is a shortcut to that directory in the control panel.
If you are using a different operating system, it might be more difficult. For Linux, xfsft provides true type font support for X-Windows.