RE: Text Editing Functions

[Sean Wilson]

> - getting a list of installed fonts (without using an Xtra)

t = new(#font)
put t.fontList()
-- ["lots of fonts here"]
t.erase()

However, I think you'll need to include the font xtras to do this

> - pasting in styled text from eg. Word. Essentially, is there a way to
> determine the type of data on the clipboard? If I new I had rtf in the
> clipboard, I could set the RTF of the member...

If you simply find an empty member ( findEmpty() ),pasteClipBoardInto() it,
then #type it, you'll know what was in the clipboard - to some degree. Even
if it's un-styled ASCII text, it'll go into a new #text member and you'll
get rtf for free!

HTH,
-Sean.

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RE: cheking if property of property list exists

[Sean Wilson]

> if ilk(this) <> #proplist then

this = gRaw[i + 1]

> end if

That should get you past the first problem.

However, you don't then check 'this' again to make sure it is now a
#propList

Also, the following syntax would be safer:

> if  voidP( this.getAProp(#property) ) then


I can't see from your code what you're trying to achieve, but try this
instead:

on init me
  i = me.spritenum - 19 -- we start with channel number 20
  -- check that i doesn't go beyond the scope of gRaw
  lCount = gRaw.count
  if lCount >= i then
-- place the property lists contained in gRaw into the temp variable
this
-- (find the first propList in gRaw after gRaw[i - 1])
repeat with n = i to lCount
  this = gRaw[n]
  -- check if this is a PropList, if not get next item of gRaw
  if ilk(this, #proplist) then
exit repeat
  else
next repeat
  end if
end repeat

-- is 'this' a propList
if ilk(this, #propList) then
  if  voidP( this.getAProp(#property) ) then
this[#property] = 1
pSpeed = 1
  else
pSpeed = integer( this[#property] )
  end if
else
  -- what to do here? No propList found.
end if
-- etc.
--
end

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RE: I've lost my mind

[Sean Wilson]

> on mouseUp(me)
>   if NOT the shiftDown then
> currModel =
> member(sprite(me.spriteNum).member).camera[1].modelUnderLoc(the mouseLoc)
>   if NOT voidP(currModel) then
> -- if there is a model under the mouse

  tlSelectableModels = []
  tModelName = currModel.name
  if tlSelectableModels.getPos( tModelName ) then

>   if NOT voidP(pTexture) then
>   --  if the texture chip has already been set
  
  member(sprite(me.spriteNum).member).model( tModelName ).shader.texture =\
> member(sprite(me.spriteNum).member).texture(pTexture)
>   -- change the texture
>   else
> alert "Pick a Backdrop first"
>   end if

  end if

>   end if
> end if
> end

HTH,
-Sean.
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RE: backward compatibility of director versions

[Sean Wilson]

> I have an urgent problem which is that I have developed a project
> on a PC with Director v8.5 and now have to make it xplatform for the Mac.
> BUT I only have Director v8 on the Mac and it tells me that the
> file is too new to open!!!
> Is there any way to make this happen as I do not fancy to redo
> the whole thing apart form there not being enough time between
> now and the deadline!!!

Umm, upgrade Mac v8.0 to 8.5? Presumably you've ruled this out.

The vList xtra will allow you to save members into a list, then open PC v8.0
and rebuild the movie. There is a "Save" utility on the downloads page.
http://www.updatestage.com/xtras/vlist.html for the xtra, and
http://www.updatestage.com/xtras/xtradownloads.html for the "save" utility -
right down near the bottom of the page.

HTH,
-Sean.

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RE: Print

[Sean Wilson]

> Hey all, trying something that I thought would be fairly simple.
> I'm trying
> to print a text field from director, not the stage and not
> necessarily the
> sprite.  The sprite I'm using intentionally only includes about
> 1/2 the data
> of the text field.  When printed, all data needs to be printed...hence, I
> need the field member from the cast printed.
>
> If I use Print-O-Matic Lite, then the user ends up with the ugly Print
> dialouge box, which of course, many people are scared of (oh, someday all
> will understand the basics of computers).

Could you not use FileIO to write out an rtf file, then use Buddy API, or
some other xtra, to print it? Hopefully one that won't show the print dialog
(I'm pretty sure Buddy can by-pass this).

-Sean.

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RE: mapping network drive

[Sean Wilson]

> how do i map a network drive

Run a batch file using the open command that does this for you.

> and also be able to get the current log-in 

Buddy API's "baUserName()"

HTH,
-Sean.
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RE: Use ActiveX Control in Shockwave Movie

[Sean Wilson]

> "This application requires an Xtra (ActiveX...) that either does not exist
> or failed to initialize properly. Please make sure the
> appropriate Xtras are
> in the Xtras folder(s)."

This reply from Tom Higgins (Macromedia engineer) to the same question on
Direct-L:

Just to make sure the original poster is clear on the real answer: you
cannot use the ActiveX Xtra in Shockwave.

Whether or not you can auto-download it, or whether you manually install it
or not, it just will not work in Shockwave* and you'll continue to get this
message. This is the case for any Xtra that hasn't been compiled as
Shockwave safe by the Xtra's creator (in this case us, in other cases the
third party developer has this choice).

Sorry but at this time that Xtra is just not a candidate for usage in
Shockwave.

*Note, all "unsafe" Xtras will actually fail to initialize any time you are
in "safe player mode". Shockwave is always in safe player mode but you can
flip authoring/projectors into that mode if you want by setting 'the
safePlayer' to TRUE. Be careful though, once you do this you cannot change
it back without quitting and then restarting either Director or your
projector.


-Sean.

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RE: Field member property name for drop shadow (not the text)

[Sean Wilson]

> What is the property name for the drop shadow of the box ...

boxDropShadow

Easiest to see when a field member/sprite is selected in the cast/score, the
PI is in list view, and the "Field" tab is selected.

-Sean.

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RE: Fake QTVR in Shockwave

[Sean Wilson]

> Most machines these days, though, have Shockwave installed. Would 
> it be possible to create virtual reality images by mapping an 
> image on a 3D sphere cast member, then placing a camera at its 
> center? If this would work, I assume that creating some sort of 
> click and drag interface to rotate the image would be very simple.

Downloadable (D8.5) source at:
http://www.theburrow.co.uk/d85/tuts/skybox01.htm

Have a look at:
http://www.theburrow.co.uk/t3dtesters/general/demos.htm
for a pre-D8.5 option (again, with source).

HTH,
-Sean.
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RE: editable textfield jump to another field using returnkey

[Sean Wilson]

> let say there is an sentence wich has open spaces where the user
> has to fill
> in one word.
> after he or she has done this, the enter/return key is pressed and the
> content is checked.
> if the content (the word wich was filled in) is wrong the space must be
> empty again.
> if the content is right the it should go to another editable text member.

The trick is filtering key input for ENTER/RETURN and setting the
keyBoardFocusSprite.
Some variation on the below should work as a starting point.

on keyDown me
  if (the keyCode = 34) then
stopEvent
-- validate content (word?) entered
if contentIsOK then
  the keboardFocusSprite = "theNextTextFieldSpriteNumber"
else
  sprite(me.spriteNum).member.text = ""
end if
  else
pass
  end if
end

HTH,
-Sean.

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RE: miaw problems II

[Sean Wilson]

> or more precisely: the sound stops when i CLOSE the window.
> sorry for the mistake... i was so fixated by having found a tech 
> note about
> the sound stopping that i confused opening a window with closing it.

You just found the wrong TN. Here's the one that acknowledges that bug:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/director/ts/documents/miaw_sound.htm

-Sean.
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RE: Can you get rid of the black key line boarder on a projector?

[Sean Wilson]

> Can you get rid of the black key line boarder on a projector?

What has worked for me in the past is to make the projector "In a window"
(File->Create Projector->Options). Then add a (projectorName).ini file and
add this section/keyName to it:
[Settings]
FullScreen=1

I don't remember whether this also works on a Mac, but it does for every
variant of Windows I've tried (IOW, YMMV)

There is also an xtra that will do this for you. Search at:
http://www.updatestage.com/products_table.html

HTH,
-Sean.

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Re: Cursor only on hypertext

[Sean Wilson]

At 09:22 a.m. 11/09/2002 +1000, you wrote:
>In using Hypertext Styles on a text member the hypertext is blue and 
>underlined and the cursor changes to a finger over the hypertext. For the 
>project I am working on I want the cursor to change as above, but not the 
>blue text and underlining.
>
>Is it possible using Lingo (or any other way in Director 8.5) to remove 
>the underlining and blueness while keeping the hypertext style cursor?

Turn off .useHypertextStyles and look in the dictionary for 
'pointInHyperlink'. Then take a look at James Newton's site for a movie 
that deals with customising hyperlink states:


HTH,
-Sean.

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Re: image of a text member

[Sean Wilson]

>can you reproduce this (Dir 8.5.1 Win2K):

Yep.

>What is wrong?

Nothing.

What you are seeing is the paint window's inherent lack of alpha channel 
interpretation.
If you try:
new(#bitmap).picture = member("test").picture
it will look like you expect it to in the paint window.

To quote from James Newton's excellent book (p.25)
"The Paint window is not aware of any alpha information. You will not see 
any transparency effect in the Paint window."
But it seems that he too has no better explanation than mine - "that's the 
way it is".
I'd guess this is one side-effect of the (apocryphal?) story that new 
Director engineers are given the paint window to cut their teeth on

-Sean.

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Re: Buddy API question

[Sean Wilson]

At 04:22 p.m. 17/10/2002 -0400, you wrote:

two questions.

I saw two different registration commands.
ba register(i think)( I am on a seperate machine).
baSaveRegistration(userName,registration number)

Before I use Buddy API Do I need in the prepare movie to say

gBuddyXtra = new(xtra"budapi")


No, you don't need to instantiate this xtra before using it - it's command 
set is registered with your projector/authoring environment on startUp and 
methods are available from that point.

Somewhere on Gary's site there is/was a registration utility that saved the 
info *into* the xtra so that registering it every time becomes unnecessary. 
Just drop the xtra into the Xtras folder and off you go.
http://svc211.bne115v.server-web.com/budapi/download/bareg.zip

-Sean.

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Re: Another Buddy API question

[Sean Wilson]

bawin is win only


I thought that baWin was a Mac-compiled/compatible xtra that contained the 
methods that are Windows specific and that these methods did nothing. The 
reasoning being that you could then write (x-plat) code without having to 
check the platform. If it ran on Windows, you get the expected 
functionality. If run on a Mac, nothing would happen - but you'd avoid the 
"handler not defined ..." error.
In other words - it registers the methods but they do nothing.

-Sean.

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Re: Another Buddy API question

[Sean Wilson]

is there anything like it for a mac?


What functionality do you need that the Mac version doesn't do?

The only xtra I'm aware of that contains a similarly full feature-set along 
the same lines is MasterApp from updatestage.

-Sean.

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Re: bug in getPixel()?

[Sean Wilson]

i've these result

instead of rgb(255, 000, 000) getPixel return rgb(248, 000, 000)
   "   rgb(000, 255, 000)""   rgb(000, 248, 000)
   "   rgb(000, 000, 255)""   rgb(000, 000, 248)

and so on for every pure colors likes rgb(255, 255, 000) even rgb (255, 255,
255) --> white is return as rgb(248, 248, 248)


With these results, your monitor is probably set to 16-bit depth. Set to 
32-bit you will get 'expected' results.

See James Newton's book for an excellent explanation. Quote: "In 16-bit 
color, the highest value for each primary color is 31. The value of 248 
comes from 31 x 8. For 16-bit colors, rgb(248, 248, 248) means white."

-Sean.

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Re: Optimizing streaming media

[Sean Wilson]

it starts to play, but the initial music and voice over don't play right
away.

I've created looping animations that ask to please wait while media
downloads, and I've got a script preloading those items

The two members are swa's, and I get the distinct feeling they're
downloading fully before playing, although I'm using the loop until media
available, which I supposed would allow the media to start streaming as soon
as it could.


Could you insert the swa files as swa files and stream them? Instead of 
inserting them as sounds. Sorry, that's really confusing. What I mean is
Insert-> Media Element->Shockwave Audio... and give the file a relative or 
absolute URL. It should then genuinely stream, as opposed to preloading 
before playing. Beware that it may hiccup/drop out/stutter while 
downloading other media into the movie, so test it hard.

-Sean.

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Re: Shockwave projector

[Sean Wilson]

This is Director MX, Win98.

I just noticed that the Player radio buttons in the Projector Options 
dialog box has the Shockwave option grayed out. Does this mean that 
Shockwave projectors are no longer supported? Or is my system weird?

Does anyone have the ability to make a Shockwave projector on their system 
using Director MX?

Works for me.

I have the downloaded final release installer (still waiting for the CD to 
arrive, but it should be the same as the installer on the CD when it ships) 
running on WinXP SP1. If you tell me how to tell which version of SW I have 
installed, I could tell you that too! The base is 8.5.1 and looking in my 
SW folder I see (although AFAIK this shouldn't have any bearing on the 
ability to create a SW projector):
iml32.dll   8.5.1.104
dirapi.dll  8.5.1.104
Proj.dll8.5.1.102

Perhaps if you try creating the external xtras folder and putting the 
required dlls and xtras in there *prior* to creating the projector you 
might have more luck.

-Sean. 

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Re: Shockwave projector

[Sean Wilson]

Thanks for letting me know that it works for you. I had already tried what 
you suggested and it made no difference. I know they yanked the Director 
MX download for a while, and made some bug fixes, but I didn't hear 
anything about dealing with with this issue. I have the NFR (Not
for Resale) CD, which maybe is an early release. Hopefully they have 
caught it for the comercial release.

I thought it was only the trial version that was yanked.

Looks to me like the commercial version works as expected when creating 
slim projectors - or at least my copy does! Perhaps this functionality is 
intentionally disabled for NFR releases?

-Sean. 

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Re: FindingNotWantedFonts

[Sean Wilson]

on FindFonts
repeat with i = 1 to the number of castmembers of castLib 4
 if the castType of cast i of castLib 4 = EMPTY then
  nothing
 else
  if the castType of cast i of castLib 4 = #richtext then
   put the memberNum of cast i of castLib 4 && the textFont
of cast i of castLib 4
  end if
 end if
end repeat
end

This works but only gives me one font per cast member. If I pick a cast
member and, for test purposes, place three or four different fonts in it,
only the first one is identified with this code.

QUESTION: Is there some way for me to locate all font typefaces used by
castmember? It could even be a space with a not wanted font on it.


If you're using D8.5, your keywords are out of date - castType, #richtext & 
textFont - although it obviously works for you to an extent.

#text members have a #missingFonts property - check the dictionary.

That being said, when I've had a similar problem it hasn't been *that* 
useful to me. Safer/more successful is to walk the cast looking for #text 
members, then walking the individual characters of the text member checking 
for fonts used.

Try the following as a start:
--
on findMissingFonts aFontName
  nLibs = the number of castLibs
  repeat with l = 1 to nLibs
nMems = the number of members of castLib l
repeat with m = 1 to nMems
  if member(m,l).type = #text then
nChars = member(m,l).char.count
if nChars then
  repeat with c = 1 to nChars
tFont = member(m,l).char[c].font
if tFont = aFontName then
  put member(m,l), c
  exit repeat
end if
  end repeat
end if
  end if
end repeat
  end repeat
end
--

HTH,
-Sean. 

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Re: Email/Mailto from Scrollable text.

[Sean Wilson]

I've placed the script 'mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]' without the 
quotation marks on the Text Inspector.
I've also placed an on hyperlinkClicked event handler as a movie script:

When I create a projector it works fine, but on the hyperlinks it opens an 
unfound html page, before going to the default email program. Any ideas 
what I'm doing wrong?? Do I need an extra, or can this be done from within 
Director?

Use Buddy API's baOpenUrl() method instead of gotoNetPage()

HTH,
-Sean. 

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Re: bringing a window to the front

[Sean Wilson]

I'm using Buddy API to make sure a window stays on top of other windows, and
have tried this code, without success:

gBUDAPI=xtra("BudAPI").new()
lwinHandle=baWinHandle()
baWindowToFront(lwinHandle)

I've also tried baStageHandle() to get the handle of the current window, but
to no avail.  I've tried full screen, titleless window, and titled window
projector modes, too, but nothing actually seems to work.  The way I'm
testing to see if it works, is to start the application and then hit alt-tab
to bring another window to the front.  Is this interaction not the same as
another application making itself on top?

Is there any other way to keep my app on top?


There is no need to instantiate Buddy API before using its command-set, so 
no need for the new() call.

If you want your window to *stay* on top, as opposed to moving it to the 
front, try baSetWindowState( WinHandle, "StayOnTop" )

HTH,
-Sean. 

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Re: sound loop question

[Sean Wilson]

I'm looking at an old Director movie with a sound in it. The sound is 
internal, and I don't have the source file to investigate. This sound 
starts with a rising pitch, reaches some point and stays there (actually, 
think of the sound of a car starting out and then reaching cruising
speed). When I turn looping on for the sound, it does the starting out, 
gets to the cruising and loops on the cruising - the starting out part is 
not repeated in the looping.
Can anyone offer a guess what was done to allow/cause this sound to work 
like this?

I don't know that I can tell you how to reproduce this yourself, only that 
I've seen a similar sound file in one of MM's Training from the Source-type 
CDs that came with a Peachpit Press book. The movie file involves animating 
a mechanical arm to move up and down the left side of the stage and a 
series of cast members to swap that shows the arm extending and retracting. 
The sound file that comes with this movie does exactly what you describe - 
when you turn on looping it does so not from the start of the file but from 
some point into the file. I realize that this should be achievable with 
(newer) sound lingo, but this file worked in D7, before any of that was 
available.

I've never heard of any explanation of how to achieve this, but looked 
around in Sound Forge for possible options and thought I'd found one that 
looked promising, but having just had another quick look I can't find what 
it was and it was years ago I was trying to recreate this effect.

Perhaps Buzz has some ideas?

-Sean. 

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Re: icon question

[Sean Wilson]

What's the best way of changing icons for a pc projector? I've used
microangelo in the past, but it seems to kill projectors now...
I still use Microangelo successfully - you just have to be careful when 
updating icons to choose "Update graphics 'in place'" from the "Edit -> EXE 
update method" menu. There's a note on their site about it specifically for 
Macromedia/Director/high-level language developers.

HTH,
-Sean.
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Re: All possible combination sequence of a list of items

[Sean Wilson]

Does anyone have a function that when given a list of items, the function 
will return all the possible combination sequences.
You need to spend more time with DOUG. The latest article posted covers 
exactly this topic.



HTH,
-Sean. 

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Re: Customized hypertext

[Sean Wilson]

I know I have read somewhere that I can customize hypertext in Director to 
make it a different color (other than blue), but can't remember where I 
saw these notes.  Does anyone know where I can find this information?
Turn off useHyperTextStyles in the PI, select the text in your 
hyperlinkRange and use the text inspector to set its colour.

There's an article at DOUG 
(http://www.director-online.com/accessArticle.cfm?id=1059); and James 
Newton has a movie on his site:
http://perso.planetb.fr/newton/#text (Custom Hyperlink Style)

HTH,
-Sean. 

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Re: beep command

[Sean Wilson]

I just tried using the beep command on a Windows XP machine and it doesn't 
work on either of my machines. I can try it in the Message window and 
nothing happens. I don't remember ever testing on WinXP before, but I 
don't think I done anything that should affect the system beep.

Alert gives a beep, other sounds seem to work fine, just no beep from the 
beep command.

Any suggestions?

If I remember right, D7 switched the beep from the "asterisk" sound to the 
"default" sound. But there isn't a sound named default in my sound control 
panel. Anyone know what sound the beep should be using on XP?
It works for me with WinXP Professional.

'beep' in the message window plays "Windows XP Ding.wav" from my 
%SystemRoot%\Media directory, with the same named sound selected as the 
'Default Beep'  under the Sounds tab in Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio 
Devices

HTH,
-Sean. 

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Re: Vector out of a field or text cast member

[Sean Wilson]

Just had a quick question, I would like to have users imputing text
through a normal text field and would like to be able to convert the
characters of the imputed text to vector shapes for later access to the
vertexList. Is there any easy way of doing this?
I think there is an undocumented (=> unsupported) command to do this, or 
something akin to it.
See: 

HTH,
-Sean. 

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Re: Printomatic on IBM

[Sean Wilson]

At 10:57 a.m. 20/03/2003 +0530, you wrote:
While using the Printomatic xtra in Director, we found that printing on IBM
machines running Windows 98 results in a failed printout.
I'm not sure of the specific application, but you might want to hit 
updateStage and look through the docs for their vList xtra. There is free a 
method in this xtra ( fpReset() ) that is included to deal with these sorts 
of problems. I *think*. Worth a try, at the least.

HTH,
-Sean. 

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[XPOST] Director Product survey

[Sean Wilson]

With apologies to those subscribed to other lists where the original 
message may have been sent, MM are surveying Director features.
Feel free to use those "Comments" boxes - now's your chance:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=45727185033

-Sean.

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Re: [XPOST] Director Product survey

[Sean Wilson]

Apparently they are doing this on behalf of Macromedia, but the 
announcement probably should have come from Macromedia itself in order to 
avoid any confusion.
Apologies to all for any confusion. My reason for posting the survey link 
in the first place was that MM had *apparently* overlooked Lingo-L when 
announcing this survey.

-Sean. 

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Re: To hide a browser window using buddy api

[Sean Wilson]

set b1=new(xtra "budapi")
set OK = baOpenFile( "c:\tmp.htm" , "hidden" )
put ok
-- 26031
I don't know whether it has any bearing on your ability to open a browser 
as "hidden", or why your return value for baOpenFile is as large as it is, 
but you don't need to create an instance of Buddy API before accessing its 
methods - they are essentially 'global' and registered with the 
projector/authoring environment when the program loads.
IOW: you don't need the line 'set b1=new(xtra "budapi")'

Also, the documentation states that a return value of < 32 from the 
baOpenFile method indicates an error, suggesting that 26031 *isn't* an 
error and that the method did what you asked.
Given that you are opening an htm file, why not try: baOpenURL( string URL, 
"hidden" )

HTH,
-Sean. 

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RE: Imaging lingo

[Sean Wilson]

This was an interesting problem. I'm sure there are official anti-aliasing 
routines out there, but I decided to try and work one out for myself.
There's a pair of excellent articles on DOUG about Gaussian blurring that 
talks about the same kinds of concepts as you describe, Colin.
http://www.director-online.com/buildArticle.php?id=962 and
http://www.director-online.com/buildArticle.php?id=1026 

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Re: MUI Xtra on OSX

[Sean Wilson]

I had the same problems in 8.5, and I double checked the Xtra version, and
it is the MX xtra.  Here's the code I'm using to build the dialog box.  It
works fine on Windows:
In your windowPropList you don't specify anything for the modality of the 
dialog.
In my experience, run() expects the window.modal = 1; whereas show() 
expects the window.modal = 0 - I'm not sure what the default is, but it's 
possibly 0.
Try explicitly setting window.modal = 1, especially if you're showing it 
with a run() command.

HTH,
-Sean. 

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Re: : DMX issues (summary)

[Sean Wilson]

Maybe I'm the only one seeing this one - idle projectors in OSX consuming 
huge CPU resources for no apparent reason.
I don't know whether Buddy API for the Mac, or even the OSX version, 
contains the same function, but with the Windows version you can use 
baSleep() to reduce apparent cpu hogging.

-Sean. 

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Re: Save as binary file

[Sean Wilson]

do I need an Xtra to save a bitmap to the hard drive? This is a
projector, not a Shockwave.
AFAIK, yes. The best option, IMHO, is Werner's SharpExport xtra
http://www.sharp-software.com
(I believe DirectImage also has this kind of functionality - at a price!)

-Sean. 

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Re: RGB codes

[Sean Wilson]

While I'm not sure if this is what you're asking, paste this into a movie 
script and call it from the message window:

on mShowColors
  repeat with i = 0 to 255
aColor   = color(#paletteIndex, i)
hex  = aColor.hexString()
aColor.colorType = #rgb
put i, hex, aColor.red, aColor.green, aColor.blue
  end repeat
end
HTH?,
-Sean.
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Re: RGB codes

[Sean Wilson]

I'm sure you're on the right lines for what was being asked, but which 
palette does the routine refer to?
Excellent question, Colin! And something I struggled with. I *think* it 
defaults to the palette set in the movie properties dialog and for some 
reason that setting isn't available to lingo, either gettably or settably. 
However, I changed that setting to all the other available options (and 
saved the movie) and it would only ever spit out values for #systemWin, so 
I have no idea how that works in the background.
James Newton has a routine in his book that involves creating bitmaps with 
different palettes and get/setPixel which are then queryable for rgb <-> 
paletteIndex "conversions".

-Sean. 

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Re: Bloody stupid HP drivers

[Sean Wilson]

It's not Director. It's those bloody stupid buggy HP printer drivers.
Every time I print something, Director starts crashing. I reboot, and
everything is fine. Until I print again.
Try calling "fpReset()" on updateStage's vList xtra after printing and see 
if it helps. I think it's one of the things that particular method is 
intended to help with this phenomenon. From the docs:

Windows command that resets the floating point register after it has been 
left in a bad state by a printer driver. This situation caused a vList 
crash when reading and writing files, and causes the same type of crash in 
other xtras and Director itself. The crash dialog identifies this type of 
crash as an "exception 10H".

vList now resets the FP register internally so this command is not 
necessary to protect vList operations. But it can be useful to head off 
trouble in other xtras or Director. For instance it has been reported to 
fix a Flash printing problem from a Flash sprite in Director.

The following links provide more information on the problem:
http://www.aresforact.com/support/1001.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q183522
-Sean. 

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Re: dynamic text fields, how-to...

[Sean Wilson]

Is there any other way of making it work besides creating multiple text 
cast members and assigning each sprite its own cast member? I am open to 
suggestions - I´m not even sure how I would go about creating text members 
on-the-fly.
Daniel showed you how to create members on the fly.

Another approach is to use a #flash member to display text. You can use a 
flash member with a text field in it and change its text and it won't 
affect the member. So you can use the same flash member for many sprites to 
display different text on the same frame. However, there are potential 
performance hits using lots of flash sprites on the same frame.

HTH,
-Sean. 

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Re: detecting quicktime player

[Sean Wilson]

Cath has shown the 'quickTimeVersion', whats the other method?
and what are the advantages or disadvantages of the various methods.
All approaches involve an xtra of some sort. For example 
'quickTimeVersion()' is dependent on the QT3 or QT6 Asset xtra - both of 
which ship with Director (and are therefore "free").
There are third-party xtras which will do something similar. For example, 
with BudAPI you can call baVersion("qt3") for similar info. BudAPI returns 
a string, quickTimeVersion() returns a floating-point number.
I would imagine MasterApp has similar functionality, though I don't own a 
copy or have the demo version installed.
FileXtra4 - which is free - contains a method fx_FileGetAppPath, which 
should tell you which application is associated with a given filetype. So 
fx_FileGetAppPath(".qt") should give you the full path to the application 
associated with QT. If it returns a non-empty string you know there's at 
least a version of QT installed, even if the xtra doesn't contain a method 
allowing you to determine *which* version.
(Most) third party xtras require payment before you can use them. This is 
the only real "disadvantage". And I can't see any advantage between 
different methods.

Links to the above xtras:
BudAPI: http://www.mods.com.au
MasterApp: http://www.updatestage.com
FileXtra4: http://kblab.net/xtras/
A good site for a list of available xtras is

Actually, a non-xtra method comes to mind. You could write a routine using 
"getNthFileNameInFolder" to search the entire machine for 
"QuickTimePlayer.exe" - this would also tell you if QT was installed, but 
again fail with version information. And it would take, potentially, a 
*very* long time. Now there's a distinct disadvantage!

-Sean. 

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Re: cpu usage

[Sean Wilson]

I have made a new .dxr and in the preferences unmarked the check box 
"animate in the background" but it still use 100% cpu.
I have also now tried:
on exitFrame
go the frame
basleep(30)
end
And are you saying that baSleep() doesn't help?
Try moving it to an enterFrame handler. That would mean that fewer "idle" 
messages are sent to every frame. Using it at exitFrame, I would think, 
would decrease your frame rate as the projector would "sleep" between 
exitFrame and prepare/stepFrame messages - which is a less ideal time to 
slow it down than simply skipping idle messages.
Your frame rate is 15 fps -> 1 frame (ideally) takes 66.6667 ms. So try
--
on enterFrame
  baSleep(66)
end
--
in a movie script.
I don't really understand your concern. Are you noticing that other apps 
are sluggish because they aren't allocated CPU time? Director projectors, 
on Windows, appear to use 100% of the CPU. In most cases they are simply 
consuming system idle time. If another app needs time, Director *should* 
release the CPU for them. Is this not the case you're witnessing?

-Sean. 

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Re: dynamic text fields, how-to...

[Sean Wilson]

However,
there are potential performance hits using lots of flash sprites on
the same frame.
Why do you think you have the performance hit? It is because everytime you 
"use" a Flash Member as a sprite, you are in fact invoking another 
instance of the Flash player (flash xtra).
Yes, and each instance uses up available memory as well as time to 
composite and render.

Each flash xtra is displaying the text field, but each instance is 
"unaware" of the other instance. Therefore altering the text in one 
instance will not affect the other instance.
This is not the same as have a sprite being an instance of the text.
Yep, understood. That's why I suggested using #flash text as an option.

Quoting from the horse's mouth:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/director/ts/documents/flash_tips.htm

When using Flash Sprites in Director, each Flash Sprite creates a new 
instance of the Flash Asset Xtra. This means that as more Flash Sprites are 
used, more memory is required by the application and exponentially 
increases the computations required. Developers have reported performance 
difficulties with over twenty simultaneous Flash sprites, which is to be 
expected.

Included in the above document are some tips for optimisation which are 
well worth looking over.

-Sean. 

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Re: Open a folder

[Sean Wilson]

I thought there would have been a method somewhere to open a
folder...maybe in buddyAPI or the fileXtra or something.  Is there any
way to open a folder (not a file)?
You don't say which platform you're interested in, but this will work on 
Windows using BuddyAPI:
--
on mouseUp me
  prog = baSysFolder("windows") & "explorer.exe" && baShortFileName(the 
moviePath)
  OK   = baRunProgram(prog, "normal", 0)
  -- error check on OK
end mouseUp
--

There are various command-line switches you can pass to Explorer to show 
folders, select files, etc. They were discussed in the past and should be 
available with an archive search.

HTH,
-Sean. 

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Re: Can MUI bitmaps have ink effects?

[Sean Wilson]

I'm wondering if you can somehow add ink effects to bitmaps in MUIs.  I
ask because my MUI has a bitmap that needs a shape to it other than
rectangular.
Unfortunately not, in my experience.
In order to work around this "limitation" I created a bitmap with the same 
bg colour as the dialog window and the rect I need it to cover and 
copyPixel into this my desired image. Windows XP Themes complicate this 
because dialog background colours are different from 95/98/ME/2K. Using 
BuddyAPI, if you parse this registry setting you can get the correct 
(current) colour:
baReadRegString("Control Panel\Colors", "ActiveBorder", "error", 
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER")

HTH,
-Sean. 

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Re: Scrollwheel?

[Sean Wilson]

Is there any xtra that can get a scrollwheel?
WheelMouse - Windows only:

Updatestage is a good place to check for available xtras:

-Sean. 

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Re: OSX baShortFileName

[Sean Wilson]

I can't for the life of me get buddyApis function baShortFilename() to 
work on OSX.
the docs say clearly, that it should work on OSX, but the only thing I get 
from this function is  :-(
regardless what I do.
what am I missing ?
The thing I *always* miss with this function is that the file _must_ exist 
before you can obtain its shortName - at least this is the case with the 
Windows version. Perhaps this is your problem too - if the same requirement 
applies to OSX?

-Sean. 

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Re: OSX baShortFileName

[Sean Wilson]

thank you Sean, but I tried it with existing files.
the docs say, that if I provide the short name, I will get the short name.
since I get the short file name, whenever I baGetFilename(), the following 
shouldn't return void IMO:
It certainly looks like there's something "screwy" going on there. On 
Windows, baGetFilename() doesn't return the shortFileName but the 
longFileName - at least it does for me with XP.

This
-- "Dagobert:who ever allowed long fil#A34AD:with spaces should be#A34B0.txt"
is a very strange construction. Presumably #A34AD and #A34B0 should resolve 
to unique values within their respective directories. Odd that 
baLongFilename resolves properly but baShortFilename fails.

Even odder is that
put baFileExists(longname)
-- 0
fails, where baFileExists(filename) seems to work.
Did you try mailing Gary directly, or checking his forum (I'm not sure 
whether it's still active) for more help?

-Sean. 

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Re: Accessing global variables with sent parameters

[Sean Wilson]

put the globals.count
-- 1
setAProp the globals, #x, "hi"
put the globals.count
-- 2
put x
-- "hi"
What I think Agustín is (circuitously) suggesting is:

on LoadDataSet stdnum
  tData = (the globals)[symbol("gStandard" & stdnum & "DataRef")]
-- utilize tData as you see fit (it *should* hold the value of the 
global required)
End
but the list-access method Kerry and Cath suggest is "tidier". Problems of 
this nature generally suggest the use of a list to circumvent them

-Sean. 

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Re: printing PDF with buddyAPI

[Sean Wilson]

Doing a simple routine to print a PDF document as follows:

on mHit me
sPDFFileToPrint = themoviePath & pPDFPathName & "\" & gCurrentLanguage &
pPDFFileName & ".pdf"
returnError = baPrintFile(sPDFFileToOpen)

if returnError < 32 then
-- issues a number of calls and then returns an alert dialogue
printingProblemAlert()
end if
end

If a printer is not connected, it just opens a blank PDF document in the
background and doesn't call the printingProblemAlert() handler.  Is there a
better way to do this.  Just want it to print in the background and only
alert if there is issue.
You could check available printers first with baPrinterInfo().
Given that you're printing Acrobat documents, you could first find the path 
to the app (and do some error checking around the returned value), then use 
baRunProgram() to run Acrobat "hidden" and print the file with command-line 
switches.

-Sean. 

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Re: Protect content outside Director

[Sean Wilson]

I'm using video (mpg) in director movies, is there a way to protect this
media, so  they only can use it in the movie. I've tried to encrypt the
file, but the project is distributed on
CD-Rom and there seems no-way to encrypt it when the file is on the CD-Rom.
Thanks.
A possibility that I'm currently experimenting with is to import the binary 
data for the MPEG file into an encrypted vList member using readBinary() at 
author-time, writing it out to an external file at run-time using 
writeBinary(), linking it to a cast member for playing, and deleting the 
external file when done. It's surprising how fast the read/write operations 
are, even for large files.

-Sean. 

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Re: Protect content outside Director

[Sean Wilson]

just an addendum to the binaryIO suggestion, there is a detailed
description and lingo code for this under
http://www.updatestage.com/previous/981101.html
The "problem" with the BinaryIO option is that since the media is on CD-ROM 
you can't write to it. So if you were to use BinaryIO you'd need to copy 
the file from the CD onto the HDD(, reset its read-only flag?), copy back 
binary data you'd removed, and delete the copied file when done.

-Sean.

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Re: Antispam UOL?

[Sean Wilson]

Is anyone else getting those annoying spanish 'click here to make sure this
email isn't spam' messages for posting to lingo-l? Much like I'll get after
this one...?
Yep, I've had a few and they're getting to be a real pain. I suspect a 
Brazilian subscriber's ISP runs this "service" - so if you're from Brazil, 
and you're the subscriber in question, you'll probably never see this as I 
_won't_ visit the URL provided and "validate" myself.

-Sean. 

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Re: Dumb dir question

[Sean Wilson]

Anyway of getting the projector name?
the applicationName

-Sean. 

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Re: dumb question - opening a folder

[Sean Wilson]

How do you open a folder for browsing with director?
I don't see any commands to open just the folder.
There are functions to return a list of folders or files but I just want to
open the folder and let the user browse on their own using the Explorer
window.
Using DirectorMX, WindowsXP Pro
Here's one option that uses BuddyAPI:
--
pth  = baShortFileName(the moviePath)
dir  = the movieName
prog = baSysFolder("windows") & "explorer.exe /e," & pth & ",/select," & 
pth & dir
OK   = baRunProgram(prog, "maximised", 0)
--
I can't remember where I referred to to find out the available command-line 
switches for Windows Explorer (/e, /select, etc.) but you might find them 
if you search at MSDN.

HTH,
-Sean. 

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Re: dumb question - opening a folder

[Sean Wilson]

Don't forget, you can also get a folder list, and "roll your own" file and 
folder browser - for instance if the aesthetics of the native Windows one 
hurts your sensibilities, and blows the "nice interface" you have going.
And then you could go nuts and use updatestage's excellent TreeView xtra to 
roll your own version of Windows Explorer. 

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Re: Consistency shmusisten...uh....

[Sean Wilson]

put ilk(sprite(1).pFModule.listbox.currentItem)
-- #void
put sprite(1).pFModule.listbox.currentItem = #void
-- 0
I try to stay away from syntax like your last line above. What does
put ilk(sprite(1).pFModule.listbox.currentItem, #void)
return for you?
-Sean.

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Re: Using Lingo to compress Casts

[Sean Wilson]

Is there a 'lingo access' to the "Update Movies" option that we use to
compress and 'encrypt' the cast libraries? I want to make a projector
that is able to do it
Unfortunately not. The best you can do (AFAIK) is:
castLib(nameOrNumber).save(fullPathToFile)
-Sean. 

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Re: Commenting out chunks of code

[Sean Wilson]

i wonder, how can i comment out only spcific chunks of code standing on one
line? e.g.
if varA < 0 or varB > 0 then
sth
end if
how can i comment out only statement "or varB > 0" but not the whole line?
in java you can do it... here?
Unfortunately not, AFAIK. Currently lingo, or the script editor, lacks a 
block-comment or close-comment character sequence. It's a great idea! Mail 
it to the wish-list.


-Sean.

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Re: Re: QT issues

[Sean Wilson]

I am working on a interactive project and I have went to test it online
and the QuickTime .mov files will not show up. I exported out the .dcr
file and it shows up on the preview test; however, when it is live the
.mov files don't display audio or video.I have all the files that are
associated with it uploaded online and Im sure thats not the issue.
Does anyone have any suggestions to fix the problem???
Did you check the "Download if needed" box after highlighting the QuickTime 
xtra in the "Modify -> Movie -> Xtras" dialog? If not you should do this 
and re-publish your movie.

To see if this is your problem you could test it by copying the QuickTime 
xtra to your Shockwave plugin folder. If your video plays properly then 
this is probably the cause. I'm not sure what you mean by "preview test" 
above, so this mightn't be related at all. If you provide system details 
(OS version, Director version) someone could help you locate this folder if 
you're not sure where it resides.

HTH,
-Sean.
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Re: Script window flushing

[Sean Wilson]

Just a quick question: when working with big scripts how do I get rid of
constant flushing (or flashing) of script window whenever I typed in a
new character?
I've had a degree of luck with turning OFF line numbering, either from Edit 
-> Preferences -> Script, or right-click in an open script window and 
de-select Line Numbering.

HTH,
-Sean.
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Re: goToNetPage buggy?

[Sean Wilson]

   * Is there some other (cross-platform hopefully) way to launch a
 browser with a given URL, or open that URL in an existing browser?
While I won't answer any of your other questions, I _always_ use Buddy 
API's baOpenURL() for launching a browser from a projector. It is much 
better at locating the user's "preferred" browser than goToNetPage()

-Sean.

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Re: accessing the timeoutlist

[Sean Wilson]

It's strange: I can't seem to access items in the plain old linear list
of the timeoutlist.
put the timeoutlist
-- [timeOut("wiper")]
g = "timeout(" & QUOTE & "wiper" & QUOTE & ")"
put (the timeoutlist).getPos(g)
-- 0
If ((the timeoutlist).getPos(g)) <> 0) then -- doesn't work either

Somehow, some way, I should get 1.  What gives?
What gives is that you're building a string and comparing it with an object.
You could try
g = "timeout(" & QUOTE & "wiper" & QUOTE & ")"
g = value(g)
put (the timeoutlist).getPos(g)
Or:
g = timeout("wiper")
put (the timeoutList).getPos(g)
But I'd question what it is you're trying to achieve in the first place. 
I've yet to find a need to access named objects in the timeoutList, much 
less their specific position.

-Sean. 

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RE: accessing the timeoutlist, part II

[Sean Wilson]

> Can one imply from this statement, that JT has returned to the nest?

DIRECTOR, de lekkerste!
Following along this path of implications, this suggests Director may yet 
regain it's "most delicious" status ... 

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RE: accessing the timeoutlist, part II

[Sean Wilson]

Well in my own mind, along with Febo, Director is already de lekkerste. 
Always has been, always will be.
I'd have to agree!

-Sean.

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Back for the future (was: accessing ...)

[Sean Wilson]

with another "founding father" of Director in the house
Hi Tom,

Any chance you could elaborate on "another"?

Thanks,
-Sean. 

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Re: Weird error code

[Sean Wilson]

I'm only checking a list to see what the count of something is

(ie if gThisAssetList.assets.count) and I'm getting an alert of:

is3dCastMember
Unknown error code (-2147219478)
...and I'm not even DOING anything with 3d.

More on this: I think it might be related to vList
I suspect this isn't going to help, but
put MOAErrorToString(-2147219478)
-- "Asset creation failed"
Is there any chance that the read/create operation failed with vList? Do 
you error check on the returned value from vXtraInstance.read()? Have you 
confirmed that the path to the external list file is valid, if you're 
reading an external list? Did you confirm that gThisAssetList is a list 
before running list functions on it?

Have you tried using list-brackets to access your properties:
if count(gThisAssetList[#assets]) then ...
Hopefully something above will help.
-Sean. 

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Re: Changing name of a file

[Sean Wilson]

is it possible to change the name of a file via Director?
i mean, i want to offer a way to rename an already outputed textfile, 
myfirstname.txt ---> secondname.txt

en eventually to move the file into another directory?
You could use Buddy API's baCopyFile() method, or you might even be able to 
use downLoadNetThing() and provide fully qualified paths for both the URL 
and localFile parameters.

-Sean. 

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RE: Dir MX 2004 - MIAW's

[Sean Wilson]

Did I mention that you can now [SNIP]
Now you're just bragging!

All of this sounds VERY tasty. I can't wait to get my hands on a shipping 
copy ...
Congratulations to you and all the Director team on what sounds like a 
significant release.

And yet there's still even more to talk about beyond all this...
Feel free to talk on. The info posted at MM doesn't go into any depth and 
the more you talk it up the more we users slaver in anticipation.

To get the ball rolling on an intriguing aspect of the release: is there a 
performance penalty incurred by using JavaScript syntax instead of 
"traditional" dot syntax, like there is with some elements of dot versus 
verbose syntax?

Cheers,
-Sean. 

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Re: Director MX 2004 Questions

[Sean Wilson]

OK, I've got another one off the top of my head: any "improvements" to the 
MUI xtra (above the obvious need to fix the broken getURL call on OSX)? Any 
chance of encapsulating it, and its callbacks, to a parent script and thus 
avoid polluting the global space?

I'm sure there are more to come, but I haven't thought of them yet ;)

-Sean.

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Re: A little heads-up

[Sean Wilson]

I just ran into a weird problem that I thought I would share. I came up 
with a workaround, so I'm posting just in case I can save somebody from my 
2-day headache.

The go movie call wasn't doing anything.
Is there any chance 'go ...' was being issued from a prepareFrame or 
stepFrame event? A gotcha that keeps on getting me is that navigation 
commands fail silently when used within those handlers (and prepareMovie).

-Sean. 

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Re: Repost: File storage

[Sean Wilson]

The movies will have to be protected ofcourse, so using savecastLib or
saveMovie is out of the question. My plan is to make a playback engine that
retrieves the contents of each screen and plunk them into their respective
fields. The content files can reside in a subfolder, but I'd like to go for
a safer solution such as combining all the images, text and video clips into
one big data file. I know BinIO can do this...but there was a solution using
FileIO for the same thing someplace. Can someone point me to that?
I think you're referring to an article on DOUG. You might check there.

I've been doing something similar lately, and I've been using vList to drop 
all my media assets into for (protected, compressed) storage, and to 
re-create the original files at run-time. It's well worth a look for what 
you describe - vXtra.readBinary() and vXtra.writeBinary() are surprisingly 
fast, much more so than stepping through a string of binary data and 
writing it character-by-character (which is how you'd have to do it if you 
were to use FileIO, I think). You can create a property list, read in all 
your files and store the binary data as properties and write the (single) 
list file out to disk, or place it in a castLib and issue a 
castLib(x).save() to store the vList file as an encrypted cast member so 
that even if someone were to open the castLib, the data is irretrievable 
without the key you create.
Just be careful to resist the temptation to double-click those large vList 
members when you're testing it in authoring - it can take quite a while for 
the options dialog to be displayed depending on how large the container is.

HTH,
-Sean. 

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Re: Bug of the week

[Sean Wilson]

I managed to get the startMovie handler called 7 times. I'm willing to
let you guess how I managed that before I reveal yet another Stupid
Lingo Trick.
You created 6 timeout objects in prepareMovie and none of their targets 
contained startMovie handlers? 

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Re: FileIO limits

[Sean Wilson]

What is the limit to the length of a path for fileIO on Windows? I have
a path 130 characters long, and I'm getting an IO error. Buddy reports
that the file exists.
IIRC, I think it's around 128. Can you use Buddy's baShortFileName() to 
pass to FileIO?

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Re: MIAW and objects or else

[Sean Wilson]

I open a MIAW that show QuickTime VR and then clicking on a button I get 
ride of it, the problem is that after the MIAW is gone the movie doesn't 
respond anymore to an object. I mean in the main movie I use an object 
that do certain tasks, like swiching images and so on but after I have 
used the MIAW and get ride of it that functions are not working anymore.
Hi Teo,

You don't provide enough information to have a good guess about what's 
going wrong so I'll make some assumptions - the major one being that the 
object you refer to is stored in a global variable. Is there any chance 
that in the MIAW's stopMovie handler you issue a clearGlobals?
What happens when you run this in the authoring environment and use the 
object inspector and/or watcher windows to monitor your object?

-Sean. 

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Re: Director 10 lingo changes?

[Sean Wilson]

Then again, scriptExecutionStyle isn't in the docs anywhere, including the 
LiveDocs site, so I dunno if there's really any documentation of what I'm 
looking for.
The poor documentation is my greatest frustration with this new release.
It's fabulous to have new features, but if we don't know they're there or 
how to use them, no-one wins.

Have a hunt-around for "on closeRequest".
Anyone have any undocumented/overlooked features they'd care to share?
-Sean. 

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Re: Object cleanup (was: no subject)

[Sean Wilson]

i'm experimenting with the amplitudePro xtra (which is great by the way) and
i am having trouble getting rid of my objects without explicity naming them.
i have tried
global  gAmpXtra -- current instance of the object

 if sound(1).status = 0 then
  put sound(1).status
  ClearAmpObject(gAmpXtra) -- pass the object to the ClearAmpObject
handler
end if
and

on  ClearAmpObject(theampobject)
  if objectP(theampobject) then
theampobject= 0
theampobject= VOID
  end if
end
The problem with your ClearAmpObject method is that nowhere do you seem to 
be disposing of the reference being held in the gAmpXtra variable. While 
the entire handler seems unnecessary (when you could just be issuing the 
line I've inserted below), try:

on  ClearAmpObject(theampobject)
  if objectP(theampobject) then
theampobject= 0
theampobject= VOID
  gAmpXtra = VOID
  end if
end
HTH,
-Sean. 

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Re: intercepting Taskbar/System menu Close command

[Sean Wilson]

I can't find a way to intercept the Close command when the user clicks 
Close after right-clicking the icon in the taskbar in Windows or clicks 
Quit  in the system menu (top left of the screen) in Mac OS X.

Is there a way to intercept those two Close commands?

If this is not possible in Dir 9.0 MX, can this be done in Dir 2004 MX?
AFAIK, this happens automatically with DMX04, in both Windows and OSX 
projectors, when the exitLock is set. When any exit options are attempted 
you are notified iff you've provided an on closeRequest movie handler. From 
within this handler you can prompt, quit, continue, whatever you'd like 
(you aren't forced into a close cycle).

But I haven't tried it on OSX - just read other's reports, as in this 
thread: 


And looking for documentation about "closeRequest" will prove frustrating. 
You could try Macromedia's livedocs site, but I wouldn't recommend this if 
you live rurally and use a dialup connection.

HTH,
-Sean. 

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Re: Checking file (and path) validity

[Sean Wilson]

Ultimately, I want a Shockwave movie embedded in a web-page that will find 
the user's CD-ROM drive letter, and open a file from that drive
I don't think you're going to be able to do this even if you can determine 
the user's CD drive letter. It breaks the entire Shockwave security model 
(DirectorMX2004's DVD-playing ability aside).

-Sean. 

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Re: progress bar

[Sean Wilson]

>I have a question with regard to monitoring the progress of a group of MPEG
>files being copied from CD to harddrive. ..
>What I would like to do is monitor the number of bytes being copied as a
>percentage of the total number of bytes to be copied
Since you already have BuddyAPI, perhaps you could use one of its progress 
copying methods: baCopyFileProgress, baCopyXFilesProgress or baXCopyProgress
Using Buddy API's built-in progress bar for file copying will certainly be 
the easiest approach, but you could achieve the same with a series of 
downloadNetThing calls and monitoring the bytesSoFar of each individual 
copy operation with getStreamStatus(netID). Bear in mind that this will 
have to be asynchronous so you'll need to monitor from within a timeout 
callback or frame-related event.

-Sean. 

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RE: is there an escape character in Lingo?

[Sean Wilson]

How to set the value of an
#editText widget in a MUI window
Do you mean while constructing the dialog or as a response to user 
interaction with the dialog once posted? 

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Re: (no subject)

[Sean Wilson]

Here's a MIAW question for you - Is there any way of detecting when a
windowType=6 MIAW is maximized by the user?
AFAIK, the "on zoomWindow" handler is supposed to fire when a window's 
maximize/minimize boxes are clicked. 

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Re: Borderless MIAWs

[Sean Wilson]

I'm sure this has been covered before, but is there a way to get a
borderless MIAW?
Use a 1-bit bitmap for the windowType? Or one of the border-removing xtras? 
Which version of Director?

-Sean. 

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Re: zooming windows

[Sean Wilson]

Thanks, that works...almost.  It fires for maximize and minimize, as you
say, but doesn't fire for "normalize" (returning to an open but
non-maximized state from other minimized or maximized state).  I would
need some way of detecting this "normalize" also.
I'm not sure it would fire when "returning to an open but non-maximized 
state from (a) minimized ... state", but activateWindow or 
activateApplication should fire when returning from a minimized state. I 
don't how to detect a return to "normal" from maximized if zoomWindow 
doesn't catch this transition.

-Sean.

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Re: Unwanted highlight

[Sean Wilson]

Has anybody run into this? Any idea what's happening?
Are there any other windows - for example, a print dialog - displayed? I've 
seen this happen when something else "steals" focus such that when it 
returns to the stage, editable text sprites are selected/highlighted. Very 
frustrating and I'm yet to find a satisfactory work-around.

-Sean. 

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RE: Font problem

[Sean Wilson]

Ah, if you could only wait a couple of months, you could read the
article I just wrote
Hi Kerry,
Just for the record - where is your article being published? Can I ask you 
to post a heads-up when it's out (I don't want to miss it)?

Cheers,
-Sean. 

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RE: Language Local Setting

[Sean Wilson]

When I change the language setting by following method:
Windows 2000 --> Start\settings\control panel\Regional options
and select the Czech option. Then I run the projector, it gives the error msg.
I vaguely remember someone reporting errors with Eastern European languages 
and the text or font xtra. IIRC, turning OFF anti-aliasing for all text 
members solved the problem - but I've no idea if this will help you or not.

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Re: Problem with "goToNetPage" on OSX

[Sean Wilson]

Anyone know
an alternate way of opening a browser (instead of using "goToNetPage")?
I'd recommend using Buddy API for opening browsers - it will run whatever 
application the user has flagged as their preferred browser as opposed to 
however it is that Director makes its decision. And it's more user-friendly 
with mailto: URLs


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Re: net params

[Sean Wilson]

How to pass some params to the shockwave movie like in HTML pages:
I'm not sure exactly what you're wanting to achieve, but here are some options:
You can send a property list with getNetText or postNetText commands. See 
the docs for syntax and examples.
To have a SW movie read information from the page it's embedded in you can 
use sw1 -> sw9 in the page's object/embed tags and your movie can read 
these when it loads using externalParam. Look up externalParam / 
externalParamName / externalParamCount in the docs.
There is also externalEvent and evalScript but their support across 
browsers and platforms shouldn't be relied upon.

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Re: The Xtras

[Sean Wilson]

I'd like to know what xtras (all of them that are available
under the Xtras folder in Dir app) are needed for any projector excluding
the authoring ones.
For a list of Asset (not scripting) xtras required by a movie you can hit 
the Modify|Movie|Xtras dialog and walk the xtras listed there "Remove"ing 
them one at a time until the dialog is empty then close and re-open the 
dialog. Any cast members that require an xtra will automagically 
re-populate the xtras dialog. You may need to do this for every movie your 
projector will play to determine a complete list for your external xtras 
folder.

Cheers,
-Sean. 

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RE: Help yourself, children

[Sean Wilson]

Because of the problem with the actorList, many years ago, I wrote a 
replacement for the actorList which would solve the deletion problem.
Hi Irv,
You know, of course, that there's a simple work-around. Before an object 
deletes itself from the actorList it gets its position and compares it with 
the total number of entries. If it isn't the last, it makes a call to the 
stepFrame handler of the next object and it removes itself. Something like:
--
on mKill( me )
  pos = (the actorList).getPos( me )
  if ( pos < count(the actorList) ) then
call(#stepFrame, [(the actorList)[pos + 1]])
  end if
  (the actorList).deleteOne( me )
  -- remove remaining references ...
end
--

Cheers,
-Sean. 

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Re: comparing lists

[Sean Wilson]

C2 = highest number of the two lists
  repeat with x = c1 to c2
   --Some Crafty CODE
While Irv has already provided some crafty code, it's worth noting that for 
performance's sake you only need to iterate through the _smaller_ list 
looking for duplicates.

-Sean. 

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Re: Director error code -1101

[Sean Wilson]

Sorry to bother you guys with a trivial question, but I did look at the MM 
site first: where is a table of Director MX (9) error codes? Is -1101 in 
that table? I'm getting it when trying to encode a wave to MPEG3 in 
WIndows XP using AudioXtra (but it's not an AudioXtra code). Thanks!
By a strange coincidence I ran into this error myself with the same version 
of Director and the Audio xtra trying to do the same thing a week or so 
ago. Which version of the Audio xtra are you using? I reported it to 
Mauricio and he has spent some time trying to reproduce but can't on his 
configuration so hasn't found the source of the problem yet. Did you report 
it to Tabuleiro? Perhaps he could find a common denominator between our 
systems? He (also) thinks it's the Audio xtra relaying an error returned by 
one of MM's MIX xtras that the Audio xtra relies on.

-Sean. 

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Re: Director error code -1101

[Sean Wilson]

Mauricio has been outstanding--we've exchanged a dozen emails already, in 
the middle of the weekend. So far, no real progress, but I'm hopeful.
Same here...
I see the problem in authoring as well as in projector, but only under 
Windows XP.
So do I (authoring & projector) under WinXP. Both MX and MX 2004.
I don't see this problem under Windows 2000, all else being equal.
I don't have another machine/OS readily available for testing, unfortunately.
-- [#shockMachine: 0, #shockMachineVersion: "", #platform: "Windows,32", 
#runMode: "Author", #colorDepth: 32, #internetConnected: #online, 
#uiLanguage: "English", #osLanguage: "English", #productBuildVersion: 
"104", #productVersion: "8.5.1", #osVersion: "Windows XP,5,1,148,2,Service 
Pack 1"]
Mine (from DMX) is identical.
put axGetEnvironmentInfo("inputDeviceList)
-- "SB Live! Wave Device
US-122 A:B
"
And mine reports:
-- "SB Live! Wave Device
"
--but I don;t think it's a Xtra conflict because Mauricio has sent me a 
projector that he made, and I see the same problem with it.
Ditto.
Here's a routine to present the xtraList in a legible format - requires 
(free) pRegEx xtra:
--
on HumanReadable_XtraList
  inList = [string(the xtraList)]
  pRegEx_Replace(inList, "\], \[", "gi", RETURN)
  pRegEx_Replace(inList, "#name: ", "gi", EMPTY)
  pRegEx_Replace(inList, "\]", "gi", EMPTY)
  pRegEx_Replace(inList, "\[", "gi", EMPTY)
  pRegEx_Replace(inList, ", #version: ", "gi", TAB)
  return inList[1]
end
--

Looking at the difference between your xtraList and mine, I see that as far 
as "standard" or default xtras go they differ in that my TextXtra.x32 is 
version 9.0.1 and my Flash Asset.x32 is 9.0.2

-- [[#name: "DHCXtra.x32", #version: ""],
 [#name: "Arca.x32", #version: "1, 5, 1"],
 [#name: "asFFT.x32", #version: "2.0.8"],
 [#name: "TxtCrnch.x32", #version: ""],
 [#name: "MPEGADVANCE.X32", #version: "1, 0, 4"],
 [#name: "V12-DBE for Director.x32", #version: "3.3"],
 [#name: "shockfiler.x32", #version: "1, 2, 2"],
[#name: "sharpExport.x32", #version: "1, 0, 0"],
 [#name: "RecSnd.x32", #version: ""],
[#name: "quitMsg.x32", #version: ""],
[#name: "PMLite.x32", #version: "1.6.2"],
 [#name: "OSControlXtra.X32", #version: "2.1.0"],
 [#name: "OSControlOptions.X32", #version: "2.1.0"],
 [#name: "DirectEmail.x32", #version: "2.1.1"],
 [#name: "budapi.x32", #version: ""],
 [#name: "AudioXtra.x32", #version: "5, 0, 0"],
 [#name: "AmplitudePro.x32", #version: "1.0"]
Here are my non-standard xtras, where the first 6 are the same as yours:
"OSControlXtra.x32" "2.1.0"
"OSControlOptions.x32"  "2.1.0"
"DirectEmail.x32"   "2.1.1"
"SharpExport.x32"   "1, 0, 0"
"budapi.x32"""
"AudioXtra.x32" "5, 0, 0"
"TreeView.x32"  "3, 0, 0"
"vListAuthor.x32"   "1.7.5"
"vList.x32" "1.7.5"
"V4MD.x32"  "2, 0, 0"
"dropFile.x32"  ""
"WheelMouse.x32""1.1"
"pregex.x32"""
"DirectConnection.x32"  ""
"BinaryIO.x32"  "1.1.3"
"Glu32.x32" "1, 0, 1"
"Multiusr.x32"  "8.5.1"
"FileXtra4.x32" "4.0.2"
It seems to me that given that we have the same problem we should be 
focusing on what is identical between our systems/configurations, not what 
is different. Or perhaps what we share in common that Mauricio doesn't.
It appears we have the same sound card. Perhaps the driver is at issue, 
given that Win2K is probably using a different driver to XP on your machine 
(you dual-boot?) Under XP, mine is:
Driver Provider:Creative
Driver Date:2/11/2001
Driver Version: 3509.2.0.0

-Sean. 

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Re: Director error code -1101

[Sean Wilson]

Thanks for telling me that MX 2004 shows the same problem--you saved me 
the trouble of trying the evaluation version for this issue.
Sorry, I steered you wrong there. With DMX2004 I get an error code of -84 
returned (which also doesn't belong to the Audio xtra).

-Sean.

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Re: Director error code -1101

[Sean Wilson]

Sorry, I steered you wrong there. With DMX2004 I get an error code of -84 
returned (which also doesn't belong to the Audio xtra).
And one final update before we should perhaps take it off-list: it works 
with DMX2004 if I record mono, or use 
axSetEnvironmentInfo("convertNumChannels", 1) prior to axConvertToFile() 
and I can find NO combination that works with DMX

-Sean 

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Re: Director error code -1101

[Sean Wilson]

Maurucio has now sent me a projector that he built under DMX 2004. Like on 
your system, it returns error -84 for recordings at 22050 /16 / 2 and 
44100 /16 / 2, but succeeds without complaining for mono recordings at the 
same two sample rates.
I have the same projector and it behaves the same way for me, too.
The mono recordings it produces are actually 16 KBits/sec, not 32. I 
suppose the 32 rate that is quoted is for stereo? The 5 second mono 
recording that Mauricio's test projector made for me is 10, 126 bytes.

I don't know if you ever ran into this, but with Audio Xtra 4.1, I was 
never able to record at 22050 under Windows XP.
No, I never saw this - or rather, never had error reports from users.
-Sean. 

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Re: Director error code -1101: ANSWER

[Sean Wilson]

The only solution we were able to find is to use MX 2004.
AND to be sure to use axConvertToFile(soundName, filename, "MPEG3"/"SWA") 
on a sound file that is _already_ mono OR to use 
axSetEnvironmentInfo("convertNumChannels", 1) prior to conversion.
And that these problems seem, to date, to be Windows-specific and perhaps 
even sound card specific (Creative SB Live! Value).

Thanks for the update Slava.
-Sean. 

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