// The constructor function: creates a Cookie object for the specified
	// document, with a specified name and optional attributes.
	// Arguments:
	//   document: The Document object for which the cookie is stored. Required.
	//   name:     A string that specifies a name for the cookie. Required.
	//   hours:    An optional number that specifies the number of hours from now
	//             after which the cookie should expire.
	//   path:     An optional string that specifies the cookie path attribute.
	//   domain:   An optional string that specifies the cookie domain attribute.
	//   secure:   An optional boolean value that, if true, requests a secure cookie.
	//
	function Cookie(document, name, hours, path, domain, secure)
	{
	    // All the predefined properties of this object begin with '$'
	    // to distinguish them from other properties, which are the values to
	    // be stored in the cookie
	    this.$document = document;
	    this.$name = name;
	    if (hours)
	        this.$expiration = new Date((new Date()).getTime(  ) + hours*3600000);
	    else this.$expiration = null;
	    if (path) this.$path = path; else this.$path = null;
	    if (domain) this.$domain = domain; else this.$domain = null;
	    if (secure) this.$secure = true; else this.$secure = false;
	}
	
	// This function is the store(  ) method of the Cookie object
	Cookie.prototype.store = function (  ) {
	    // First, loop through the properties of the Cookie object and
	    // put together the value of the cookie. Since cookies use the
	    // equals sign and semicolons as separators, we'll use colons
	    // and ampersands for the individual state variables we store 
	    // within a single cookie value. Note that we escape the value
	    // of each state variable, in case it contains punctuation or other
	    // illegal characters.
	    var cookieval = "";
	    for(var prop in this) {
	        // Ignore properties with names that begin with '$' and also methods
	        if ((prop.charAt(0) == '$') || ((typeof this[prop]) == 'function')) 
	            continue;
	        if (cookieval != "") cookieval += '&';
	        cookieval += prop + ':' + escape(this[prop]);
	    }
	
	    // Now that we have the value of the cookie, put together the 
	    // complete cookie string, which includes the name and the various
	    // attributes specified when the Cookie object was created
	    var cookie = this.$name + '=' + cookieval;
	    if (this.$expiration)
	        cookie += '; expires=' + this.$expiration.toGMTString(  );
	    if (this.$path) cookie += '; path=' + this.$path;
	    if (this.$domain) cookie += '; domain=' + this.$domain;
	    if (this.$secure) cookie += '; secure';
	
	    // Now store the cookie by setting the magic Document.cookie property
	    this.$document.cookie = cookie;
	}
	
	// This function is the load(  ) method of the Cookie object
	Cookie.prototype.load = function(  ) { 
	    // First, get a list of all cookies that pertain to this document
	    // We do this by reading the magic Document.cookie property
	    var allcookies = this.$document.cookie;
	    if (allcookies == "") return false;
	
	    // Now extract just the named cookie from that list
	    var start = allcookies.indexOf(this.$name + '=');
	    if (start == -1) return false;   // Cookie not defined for this page
	    start += this.$name.length + 1;  // Skip name and equals sign
	    var end = allcookies.indexOf(';', start);
	    if (end == -1) end = allcookies.length;
	    var cookieval = allcookies.substring(start, end);
	
	    // Now that we've extracted the value of the named cookie, we
	    // must break that value down into individual state variable 
	    // names and values. The name/value pairs are separated from each
	    // other by ampersands, and the individual names and values are
	    // separated from each other by colons. We use the split(  ) method
	    // to parse everything.
	    var a = cookieval.split('&');    // Break it into an array of name/value pairs
	    for(var i=0; i < a.length; i++)  // Break each pair into an array
	        a[i] = a[i].split(':');
	
	    // Now that we've parsed the cookie value, set all the names and values
	    // of the state variables in this Cookie object. Note that we unescape(  )
	    // the property value, because we called escape(  ) when we stored it.
	    for(var i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
	        this[a[i][0]] = unescape(a[i][1]);
	    }
	
	    // We're done, so return the success code
	    return true;
	}
	
	// This function is the remove(  ) method of the Cookie object
	Cookie.prototype.remove = function(  ) {
	    var cookie;
	    cookie = this.$name + '=';
	    if (this.$path) cookie += '; path=' + this.$path;
	    if (this.$domain) cookie += '; domain=' + this.$domain;
	    cookie += '; expires=Fri, 02-Jan-1970 00:00:00 GMT';
	
	    this.$document.cookie = cookie;
	}