Hi Monte
Thanks for the detailed response, most helpful.
>Firstly I can't see why it isn't easier to have a copy of the player
>on each PC (what does 50 students opening different instances of the
>same .exe file at the same time do to your network?)but I wont go
>into that.
True, but the hit is only at application load time as MC is
memory-resident when running, so there's no continued network traffic
once loaded for a given session. I haven't come to a firm conclusion
on this yet, but I wanted to avoid the students having to install an
application, especially as they have floating accounts which they can
access using any of 100s of workstations. So I'd want them to
install MC in their data space rather than in any standard program
location. Also, in general, the institution doesn't like to
encourage students installing software on the workstations!
>Lastly If instead of using the mc.exe and the tools stack as a
>player why not build a standalone with these exact same files in it.
>Edit the icons if you want with an icon editor. Then you can save
>stacks that you want students to use as "*.reid" files. Name the
>standalone as PeterReid.exe and set the registry entries the same
>way. This way you have no interference with MetaCard programs
>installed on any ot these workstations.
The reason I'm going for a stack rather than a standalone is that I
want the student to download several different copies and save and
run them separately. Each is in fact an electronic project file
which will retain information from session to session and ultimately
be e-mailed back to their tutor for assessment. So, each student
will download a stack for each project and use it as a record of
their activity in the project. If I make these standalones, then
each will be that much bigger to download and to e-mail back to the
tutor at the end of the course. Whilst I could use store their work
in separate files, I wanted to keep it REALLY simple, these are NOT
IT students, in fact, they often struggle with IT! By having the
Player on a server and keeping everything inside a single stack, it
makes things very simple and keeps things small as well. Typically,
a student will undertake up to 4 projects. So, all they need to do
is download and run a mini app which sets up the necessary registry
entries pointing to the server Player and then they can download and
double-click open their project files at any time. Finally, I'd like
the option of providing support for the occasional Mac user as well
without having to provide Mac standalones as well.
Thanks again.
Peter
--
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Peter Reid
Reid-IT Limited, Loughborough, Leics., UK
Tel: +44 (0)1509 268843 Fax: +44 (0)870 052 7576
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Web: http://www.reidit.co.uk
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