<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /> <title>Domino Clock</title> <meta http-equiv="X-UI-Compatible" content="ie-edge" /> <meta property="og:type" content="website" /> <meta name="theme-color" content="#000000" /> <link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com" /> <link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin /> <link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Mulish&display=swap" rel="stylesheet" /> <style> body { font-family: "Mulish", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.36; letter-spacing: 0.012em; padding: 1rem; } p { color: #282828; max-width: 45ch; } </style> </head> <body> <h1>The Domino Clock</h1> <p> Sometime around 1996, when I was working for CompuServe, I saw a lovely demonstration of an electromechanical watch that used a sort of domino face to tell the time. I liked it so much that when I was looking for a toy project for my first Java Applet, I decided to implement the algorithm of the watch. </p> <p> 25 years later, I found the source code buried somewhere in an old CD. I decided to try an re-implement the logic in Javascript, and to experiment with a <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Web_Components">Web Component</a>, using the <a href="https://lit.dev">lit-html library</a>. This is the result. </p> <p> It might seem a bit silly to have implemented the seconds face when the minutes face has a resolution of only five minutes, but it allows you to watch the clock in operation and learn what each symbol means: an empty face is 0 (12) and all four pips visible is 11 (or 55 minutes/seconds). </p> <domino-clock></domino-clock> <p> The source code, both for this project and for the Java original, <a href="https://git.elfsternberg.com/elf/dominoclock" >are available at my personal Git repository</a > at <a href="https://elfsternberg.com">ElfSternberg.com</a>. </p> <script type="module" src="./src/index.ts"></script> </body> </html>