Java falling matrix code (like the movie, continued)
<p>ok, so yesterday i posted a question in regards to creating a java jframe that simulates the matrix rain from the movies which i want to be just like this php example</p>

<p><a href="http://mgccl.com/2007/03/30/simple-version-matrix-like-animated-dropping-character-effect-in-php" rel="nofollow">http://mgccl.com/2007/03/30/simple-version-matrix-like-animated-dropping-character-effect-in-php</a></p>

<p>but i would like some help with two things,</p>

<p>1st have more than one column falling at a time and
2nd having the characters trailing behind each other</p>

<p>this is my code so far</p>

<pre><code>import java.awt.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;

@SuppressWarnings("serial")
public class MainFrame extends JFrame { 

private static final int FONT_SIZE = 20;
private static final int NUMBER_OF_REPEATS = 5;
private static final String TEXT = new String("0123456789/*-+/&lt;&gt;?;:[]~!@#$%^&amp;*()+=abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz");
private static JPanel panel = new JPanel(null);
private static Random random = new Random();
private static JLabel label[] = new JLabel[NUMBER_OF_REPEATS];

public MainFrame() {        
    this.add(panel);
    panel.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
}

public void scroll() {
    for (int i = 0; i &lt; NUMBER_OF_REPEATS; i++) {
        int character_initial = random.nextInt(TEXT.length());
        int random_x = random.nextInt(panel.getWidth() / FONT_SIZE) - 1;
        int colour = 255;
        label[i] = new JLabel(""+TEXT.charAt(character_initial));
        panel.add(label[i]);
        label[i].setFont(new Font("monospaced", Font.PLAIN, FONT_SIZE));
        label[i].setForeground(new Color(0, 255, 0));

        //change the text of the labels and their position
        for (int j = 0; j &lt; (panel.getHeight() / FONT_SIZE)*2; j++) {
            int character = random.nextInt(TEXT.length());
            label[i].setBounds(random_x*FONT_SIZE, j*(FONT_SIZE / 2), FONT_SIZE, FONT_SIZE);
            label[i].setText(""+TEXT.charAt(character));

            //if foreground colour &lt; 255 catch exception
            try {
                //when text reaches a certain colour remove it
                label[i].setForeground(new Color(0, 255-(j*5), 0));
                colour = 255-(j*5);
                if (colour &lt;= 80) {
                    panel.remove(label[i]);
                    repaint();
                    colour = 255;
                    j = (panel.getHeight() / FONT_SIZE)*2;
                }
            } catch (Exception e) {}

            //pause between each character
            try {
                Thread.sleep(75);
            } catch (Exception e) {}
        }

        //create an infinite loop
        if (i == NUMBER_OF_REPEATS - 1) {
            i = 0;
        }
    }
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
    MainFrame frame = new MainFrame();
    frame.setVisible(true);
    frame.setSize(600, 400);
    frame.setResizable(false);
    frame.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(300, 200));
    frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
    frame.setTitle("Matrix Code Emulator by Ricco");
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);   
    frame.scroll();
}
}
</code></pre>
