RE: Opening MC files without creator type
> Aloha, > > I downloaded all kinds of stacks from contributors, to "tear apart" and > study. . . mcmail.mc and many others. . .they arrived on my MAC with no icon > and I cannot open them in MC. . .what do we need to do? Open in RESEDIT and > assign a type? but then this is not "an easier way. . ." In addition to ResEdit, which provides more info, and Snitch, you might like TypeShuffler from Bubble Pop Software for a drag-and-drop approach. <http://www.bubblepop.com> Regards, David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm Please send bug reports to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, not this list.
Flash SDKs released
I just noticed the following info on Macromedia releasing SDK stuff for Flash at the FlashForward 2000 promotion. I assume this might be useful for future MetaCard support planning. Regards, David MACROMEDIA ENABLES THIRD PARTIES TO SUPPORT MACROMEDIA FLASH Software development kits extend Macromedia Flash to devices and new appliances San Francisco, California-March 28, 2000-Macromedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: MACR) today announced the availability of two software development kits (SDKs) that enable third-party developers to add Macromedia Flash export to authoring applications and Macromedia Flash playback to platforms and devices. Macromedia Flash is the standard for creating high-impact, vector-based Web sites that deliver motion, sound, interactivity, and graphics. The SDKs expand the reach of Macromedia Flash so that application vendors and content developers will benefit from new Macromedia Flash-enabled platforms. Device developers will benefit by adding support for displaying the most compact file format with the highest impact online. "With more than 222 million personal computers already able to display Macromedia Flash content, Macromedia Flash is a Web standard," said Kevin Lynch, chief technology officer at Macromedia. "Within the next two years, the number of information appliances shipping with the ability to access Web content will outnumber personal computers. Macromedia is working with these device developers to ensure that Macromedia Flash is available on all of these next-generation devices." Enabling playback The Macromedia Flash Player source code SDK provides developers with an easy way to incorporate Macromedia Flash playback into emerging Web-enabled platforms and devices. Macromedia is providing a version of the C++ source code of the Macromedia Flash Player, as well as documentation designed to help a third-party software or hardware developer easily port the Macromedia Flash Player to any platform or device. The Macromedia Flash Player is already being ported to the Symbian platform for wireless devices, the Microsoft WinCE platform, and various set-top boxes. For operating system vendors and device manufacturers, the business model already exists for building the Macromedia Flash Player into new platforms, which will automatically benefit from the existing amount of Macromedia Flash content online and the growing number of Web developers who are authoring Macromedia Flash content. Enabling authoring Macromedia made the Flash file format available to the development community two years ago. The new Macromedia Flash file format (SWF) SDK details the file format, provides new export code, and includes more improved documentation for developers. Over 30 software applications currently support the Macromedia Flash file format, including products from Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE), Corel (NASDAQ: CORL), and Quark. Macromedia Flash content exported from these applications can immediately be viewed by 90 percent of Web browsers, according to the results of an NPD Online Research survey conducted in February. That percentage translates to more than 222 million Web users automatically able to experience Macromedia Flash content. SDK AVAILABILITY The Macromedia Flash file format (SWF) SDK and the Macromedia Flash Player source code SDK are both free and available for download. The file format SDK can be downloaded immediately from http://www.macromedia.com/software/ flash/open/licensing/fileformat/ by any interested parties that agree to the licensing terms. The player source code SDK will be made available to developers approved by Macromedia. For more information, visit http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/open/licensing/sourcecode/. -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm Please send bug reports to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, not this list.
Win2000 update?
I just reviewed a message from late last year regarding MetaCard for Windows' compatibility with Windows 2000. Has there been anything new to report on this? Scott noted that at most, there might need to be a minor update to deal with last-minute changes in the Win2000 code (I want you all to know I'm working REAL hard to be charitable here). And I know I will need to be working on Win2000 multimedia training starting Real Soon Now. By the way, I'd like to announce that I now have two software products that absolutely fill me with delight whenever I get to play/work with them: FrameMaker and MetaCard. Funny how they both started in the Unix world. Hey, are there any other Unix-based programs going cross-platform? I think maybe I'd better check them out! (I love Photoshop, too, but it's not quite 'fun' in the same way as FM and MC are.) Thanks all, David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
Re: MetaCard for MachTen Unix?
On Mon, 14 Feb 2000 17:47:56 +, Peter Reid wrote: >I already have MachTen installed and running which is why I asked the >question. However, taking your advice, what's the best source of >Linux PPC and do I need a dedicated machine for it or can I run it >from a bootable Jaz cartridge or a special partition of an existing >disk for example? > >Cheers >Peter You might also be interested in Virtual PC 3.0 with Linux. The installation is sort of already done apparently; and I think the partioning of the drive is not necessary because of the way Virtual PC just takes over its whack of Hard Drive space with a sort of virtual partition effect that's much less hassle. On top of that, you can switch back and forth between your running MacOS and the Linux, managed on the fly by Virtual PC. All the other installations are at best dual boot. I don't have it yet, but am planning to do so in a month or two. Hey, maybe you could tell me how it works! ;-) Thanks in advance, Peter! David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
RE: Blank Images from Disk (Mac MC2.3g)?
As someone who can speak with great authority on how to do all kinds of MetaCard stuff wrong (!) I can suggest a couple things. But before I do that, I can vouch for the fact that the only thing wrong with your situation is likely the current path, either because it's misspelled or some other probably really simple mistake. 1) Are these disk image files located in a subfolder of your stack? This would probably be the most desirable setup. Then you could "set the directory" (a global MetaCard variable) to whatever the stack's path is. 2) This brings up the point of spelling. Could it be that there is a hard space or invisible character of some sort in the names of part of your path? If so, and the stack is in a parental relationship (after the DNA testing) to the graphics, something like the following statement in the stack script would set the path so you could then refer to the graphics using relative syntax. Then it would be totally transportable, it wouldn't matter how you had spelled the names of your drive, folders, etc., and it would adjust itself automatically on the fly. global vgPath on preOpenStack put the effective fileName of this stack into vgPath set the itemDel to "/" delete the last item of vgPath set the directory to vgPath end preOpenStack Then if your stack's fileName was "/MacHD/Hoosis/Watsis/MyStack/MyStack.mc" and a typical graphic was "/MacHD/Hoosis/Watsis/MyStack/Images/title.gif" you could refer to it within the stack thusly: set the fileName of image "MainTitle" to "Images/title.gif" ...and you could also move the MyStack folder anywhere on any machine and it would still work. Regards, David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
Re: Offset from right function?
Argghh!! Never mind even more. I do feel dmb for missing another message which provides a much more efficient approach for ensuring one has set the global "directory" variable to a particular open stack's location, by using item and itemDelimiter syntax instead of "offset". Here's what I ended up with, which I believe should be fairly bulletproof (I hope?) global vgPath on preOpenStack put the effective fileName of this stack into vgPath set the itemDel to "/" delete the last item of vgPath set the directory to vgPath end preOpenStack And to further explain, the point to all this is to allow someone to be able to open a stack using a link from a web page, and ensure that when the stack opens, all graphics, etc. will be correctly referenced by relative references in that stack's scripts. Regards, David At 5:39 PM -0800 2/11/00, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >Aha! That's probably what I remembered seeing. > >I guess what I was hoping I had seen was a way of using the "offset" >function with a from-right variation. Because it occurred to me that >I could then do something like... > >put the short name of this stack into thisStack >put the long name of this stack into thePath >delete char (offsetBack(thisStack,thePath) to the length of thePath) >of thePath > >...and I would know that I was left with the correct path to a stack >even if the its long name were something like: > > /PowerBook/MetaCard/MyStuff/MyStuff.mc > >Never mind 8-( > >Regards, > >David > > >At 11:15 AM -0800 2/11/00, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >>On 11/2/00 2:19 pm, David Cramer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >>> Is there an offset-from-the-right function? I thought I had seen the >>> use of a minus symbol with offset somehow that gave you the offset >>> from the right, i.e., the end of a chunk of text. >>> >>> Yes? No? >> >>Yes, you can use negative chunk expressions. For example: >> >>char -1 of "abc" is "c" >>char 4 to -2 of "abcdefghij" is "defghi" >> >>Regards, >> >>Kevin -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
Re: Offset from right function?
Aha! That's probably what I remembered seeing. I guess what I was hoping I had seen was a way of using the "offset" function with a from-right variation. Because it occurred to me that I could then do something like... put the short name of this stack into thisStack put the long name of this stack into thePath delete char (offsetBack(thisStack,thePath) to the length of thePath) of thePath ...and I would know that I was left with the correct path to a stack even if the its long name were something like: /PowerBook/MetaCard/MyStuff/MyStuff.mc Never mind 8-( Regards, David At 11:15 AM -0800 2/11/00, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >On 11/2/00 2:19 pm, David Cramer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Is there an offset-from-the-right function? I thought I had seen the >> use of a minus symbol with offset somehow that gave you the offset >> from the right, i.e., the end of a chunk of text. >> >> Yes? No? > >Yes, you can use negative chunk expressions. For example: > >char -1 of "abc" is "c" >char 4 to -2 of "abcdefghij" is "defghi" > >Regards, > >Kevin > >> Regards, >> >> David >> -- >> David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street >> PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 >> Corporate Office Research & Development Canada > >Kevin Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.xworlds.com/> >Cross Worlds Computing, MetaCard Distributors, Custom Development. >Tel: +44 (0)131 672 2909. Fax: +44 (0)1639 830 707. -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
Offset from right function?
Is there an offset-from-the-right function? I thought I had seen the use of a minus symbol with offset somehow that gave you the offset from the right, i.e., the end of a chunk of text. Yes? No? Regards, David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
Re: Path problem in Windows MC2.3?
Ah-hah! Now I can make a better mental connection with all the recent talk about setting the current directory. OK. I just got thrown off the track early because I had been developing on a Mac, and the browsers on the Mac don't seem to affect the directory of a MetaCard stack being run from an HTML link. The current directory when the stack opens is just automatically whatever directory the stack is in. When I read the following on Jan. 25, I think I misunderstood the implications for browser access. At 7:31 PM -0800 1/25/99, metacard-list-digest wrote: >You shouldn't even need to set the original directory if you do this >all correctly. The current directory should be set to the directory >your application is in when it starts up and the relative paths should >allow the engine to find all your stacks/images/clips from there. Because this is not the case in Windows, nor in *Nix platforms either, I suppose. Oh well, it's no big deal now that I finally realize what to do. On another note, I've been testing away with some little experimental stacks which have the engine in the same directory as the application. Just out of curiosity, what principles are involved in the relationship between stacks and engine when distributing final products? Especially in CD and web browser situations, what is the basic advice as to where the engine and stacks should be installed/located relative to each other? Regards, David >Just out of curiosity, what is the current directory when MetaCard is >started up from the browser on Windows 95? Short of scanning the >entire disk, I can't think of any way to make this reliably work on >*any* platform if you're using relative paths to your media files. >You're never guaranteed to be in a particular directory when a stack >is run from a browser window, so you *always* have to set the >directory property as the very first step, before the stack even >opens. > Regards, > Scott -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
offset from end syntax?
I thought I ran across a tip, perhaps from Scott, about using a minus symbol somehow with the offset function to do the offset from the end of a chunk. Am I imagining that? David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
Path problem in Windows MC2.3?
Hi all, I just spent some more time exploring my old Hansel and Gretel problem, i.e., the Case of the Lost Path. Having sprinkled bread crumbs liberally, I can now report that the problem I thought I had in January with losing graphics in MC stacks accessed from a browser does not seem to have anything to do with the way I was linking/importing the graphics, but rather with a more fundamental phenomenon I hadn't expected, the fact that a stack's sense of its current location was getting trashed by Windows. At least, relative references in general don't work when a MetaCard stack is accessed from a browser in Windows 95. I guess this may have been reported, but I don't remember it being mentioned. It seems to work OK on the Mac, and possibly Win NT, but not Windows 95. I don't mind rewording the scripting references to stacks and graphics to make them into absolute references using a global variable set when any stack opens, but it seems odd that relative references wouldn't be better supported. Is this just some more Windows naughtiness or what? Regards, David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
Re: load url [with message ] what message?
Endless thanks to Kevin, Scott, and Andu for answering my question so well. The examples were greatly appreciated! I had missed the point that the "message" had to be a quoted message handler name (not some text destined for the message box). I made a similar mistake when I first tried to use the "send" syntax, and forgot to quote the message handler I was sending. Sometimes the chameleon-like character of name reference syntax in scripting languages throws me off, although I usually do get it eventually ;-) Regards, David Kevin's example: At 2:14 AM -0800 2/8/00, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >Try something like: > >on mouseUp > load "http://www.xworlds.com/" with message "urlIsDone" >end mouseUp > >on urlIsDone > put "got it all" >end urlIsDone Scott's example: >The message is sent to the object whose script executed the "load" >command: >on mouseUp > load url "http://www.metacard.com/index.html" with message "tellmeaboutit" >end mouseUp > >on tellmeaboutit which > put "Download of" && which && "done!" >end tellmeaboutit -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
load url [with message ] what message?
Hi folks, I must be missing something here. I seem to be able to use the load url command, but the optional message part is puzzling me. The MetaTalk Reference information on load says "the optional parameter can be supplied which will cause that message to be sent when the download is complete"; but I don't understand _where_ the message is sent. I originally assumed it would just be going to the message box, but when I use this optional message syntax, the message box is not affected. Regards, David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
Re: Scripting default menu picks? SOLVED!!
Darn, I hate when the answer to my confused question was in the Reference stack all along. I was looking for something to do with the menuPick syntax, when what I was missing was just the correct "send" syntax. To recap, I created an option button (called "recentStacks") that I stuck on the Home card, which keeps a list of the stacks I work on so I can just open them from the button instead of going through the File menu or whatever. At the end of the list I inserted a divider line and then an Other... item which just accesses the open file dialog box. That worked just fine. I added the following to the Home stack script to get the recent stack names to add themselves to the option button automagically: on closeStack if the short name of the topStack is not among \ the lines of btn "recentStacks" of cd 1 of stack "Home" then put the short name of the topStack & return before line \ ((the num of lines of btn "recentStacks" of cd 1 of stack "Home") - 1) \ of btn "recentStacks" of cd 1 of stack "Home" end if end closeStack The script of the option button is mostly stolen from somewhere else in the provided MetaCard stacks, I think it was probably just from the MetaCard File, Open menu item itself: on menuPick which if which is not "Other..." then open stack which else local filterstring if the systemFileSelector then switch the platform case "Win32" put "MetaCard Stacks" & cr & "*.mc" & cr & "All Files" & cr & "*.*" \into filterstring break case "MacOS" put "MSTKSTAK" into filterstring break default put "*.mc" into filterstring end switch else put "*.mc" into filterstring answer file "Open stack:" with filter filterstring if it is not empty then set the cursor to watch topLevel it end if end if end menuPick This worked fine, too. The next thing I wanted to do was to make the option button act like a default button, so if I pressed Return/Enter it would open the stack whose name was currently showing on the option button. The solution was the following in the Home card script: on returnKey get the label of btn "recentStacks" send "menuPick it" to btn "recentStacks" end returnKey The reason I hadn't been able to make it work before was just because I hadn't figured out that I had to put the "menuPick it" bit in quotes. Arrghh! Anyway, thanks to everyone for helping. Regards, David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
Re: Scripting default menu picks?
On Fri, 21 Jan 2000 22:23:54 -6:00, I wrote: > >If I use an option button on the Home stack to keep track of the >>stacks I have been working on so I can select which one to open (like >>a Recent Files feature, on a button instead of from a regular menu), >>how can I set up the returnKey message to open the stack name > >currently displayed on the option button? On Sat, 22 Jan 2000 00:23:36 -0500, Andu ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: >Try: > >on returnKey > open stack (the label of btn "myButton") >end returnKey Of course, since that's essentially what my option button script is doing already. But it's also including a menu item Other... which opens the Mac or Windows getfile dialog box to open a file that isn't listed already as one of the items in the menu. Since the script to deal with opening a listed stack or using the getfile dialog box is fairly lengthy, I would prefer to be able to simply send a menuPick with the currently visible option button item as a parameter, and let the button's script handle it just as if I had selected the item from the option button's menu. The question remains, is my workaround the only way to accomplish this? And is there a way to send a menuPick message to a button? Regards, David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
Scripting default menu picks?
Here's a simple question regarding menuPick and menuHistory usage and syntax. If I use an option button on the Home stack to keep track of the stacks I have been working on so I can select which one to open (like a Recent Files feature, on a button instead of from a regular menu), how can I set up the returnKey message to open the stack name currently displayed on the option button? I tried using a send menuPick message to the button, but I guess I don't understand the correct syntax for it. I think I understand that the button's label property is always set to the previously selected item; and that its menuHistory property is the line number of that item. So I don't understand why the following didn't work: get the label of btn "myButton" send send menuPick, it to btn "myButton" Then I experimented with getting the menuHistory and setting the menuHistory to it, since I read in the Reference stack that menuPick is sent automatically to a button when you set its menuHistory. But it doesn't happen if you aren't *changing* the menuHistory value. So I had to first set the menuHistory to a dummy line number which contained a divider line, which I had scripted to always be just before the last item in the list. The following worked fine: set the lockScreen to true get the menuHistory of btn "myButton" set the menuHistory of btn "myButton" to \ the num of lines of btn "myButton" - 1 set the menuHistory of btn "myButton" to it But I'm assuming I'm missing something simple regarding sending the menuPick message directly? Regards, David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
Linking to .mc from browser -- graphics problem
I can't believe I'm having a problem with this. I must be missing something really simple, but I just tried to use Windows Internet Explorer to 95 and 98, IE 4 and 5 to link to several different MetaCard stacks, including the Demo plus some of my own, which contain imported GIFs for graphics. Typical link in HTML: excel_97_intermediate.mc With all of these .mc files I get no graphics showing up at all. With another machine running NT 4 and Netscape, however, the files show up OK. I'm totally baffled; and I've been working on these files all night. What have I missed? I get the mailing list in digest form, so if anyone has any suggestions, could you also email me directly? Thanks! Regards, David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
Re: Downloading images using URL
At 11:50 AM -0800 1/17/00, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >The fact that there is no OS-level support for JPEG (or any other >image, audio, or video format for that matter). Which means that >MetaCard has to have a JPEG decoder built into it, a decoder based on >the original JPEG implementation that was designed and built before >progressive support had even been thought of. And just to avoid >version problems (and a complete breakdown if QT isn't installed), >this same decoder is used in the Windows and Mac engines. Updating >the JPEG decoder and/or using QT for this if it's installed is on the >to-do list, but its priority hasn't come up yet. > Regards, > Scott Yeah, as I suggested in another message to this thread, I'm not overly concerned as long as I know that *I* can ensure that any JPEGs or whatever that *I* create for a project will be encoded appropriately. And when I was messing around with GraphicConverter on the Mac, I just opened the error-producing graphics and resaved and they appeared just fine. If I were thinking of using MetaCard to just go and browse for miscellaneous graphics all across the Internet, I guess I would be worried; but whatever graphics we use will be internally produced, part of our own package, and therefore under our control. Regards, David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
RE: MetaCard vs. Director, Authorware
ly, they are reluctant to entrust their products to a >less-mainstream development environment. I have limited experience with >Director, and none with Authorware. > >Does anyone with experience with both MetaCard and either Director or >Authorware have any ammunition I can use to convince them that MetaCard >is the superior solution? They are mostly artists, so better media >handling would obviously be more comprehensible to them, but >programming-level arguments might be more mysterious, and therefore >convincing. > >Thanks all! > >gc -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
RE: Downloading images using URL
I still don't get either image, so it does make me wonder what the difference is between our systems. Is the configuration of HTTP servers a dark art or something? ;-) When I put the URL into the message box or a field, I could see the JFIF identifier near the beginning, but nothing else suggested a solution to me. As I described in another message, I suspect that the JPEG image might have been saved in some subtle variant/flavor of JPEG that's not supported by my version of MetaCard. But at the same time I'm not at all sure the situation is clear enough to be classified as a bug report. David At 10:30 AM -0800 1/16/00, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >From: Scott Raney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re: Downloading images using URL >Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 18:18:45 -0700 (MST) >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII >In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >On Sat, 15 Jan 2000, David Cramer wrote: > >> I have just gotten around to checking out how the loading of images >> off the Internet works. My results are really inconsistent, and I >> can't find a pattern to the problem. >> >> The following lines work great, almost instantaneously displaying the >> referenced graphics in a MetaCard image: >> >> put url "http://www.xworlds.com/images/frontpage/cwc1.jpg" into image 1 >> put url >> "http://adcreatives.imaginemedia.com/MDN/1999/07july/IMG0712.gif" >> into image 1 >> put url "http://www.fourthworld.com/images/4w/4WlogoBig2.gif" into image 1 >> >> These don't work: >> > > put url "http://www.macsurfer.com/btnsurfoff.gif" into image 1 > > put url "http://www.fourthworld.com/images/nav/menuV5.jpg" into image 1 >> >> I'm working with the Macintosh version of MetaCard 2.3B3 on a >> PowerBook G3/266 under Mac OS9. >> >> Any suggestions? > >The second one works fine here. The first one returns a 404, which >looks to me to be a misconfigured HTTP server, or at least one with >some incompatibility in how it handles full paths. When you get stuck >like this, just try putting the URL into the MB. If it works, most of >it will be garbage, but at least you'll catch the obvious errors (like >404 - not found) and with some image formats you can determine the >image format by looking at the first few bytes of the data. > Regards, > Scott > >> Regards, >> >> David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
RE: How does the "among" operator work? (Never mind!)
My apologies to the list. As they say, RTFM (or online Help). I just
realized on reading farther down in the Help page on which the
operators are described that the answer was there all along. Now I
get it.
For example:
put "Fred" is among the items of "Adam,Fred,George"
returns true, as does:
put "Fred" is among the words of "Adam Fred George"
MetaCard is tres cool!
Regards,
David
At 1:41 AM -0600 1/8/00, David Cramer wrote:
>Here's a simple operator syntax question. The list of operators
>shows "is among" and "is not among" as Order 7 operators, along with
>"contains". I had assumed that usage would be something like:
>
>if "Fred" is among ("Adam","Fred","George") then doSomething
>
>
>But this doesn't work. What is the correct syntax?
>
>Regards,
>
>David
--
David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street
PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4
Corporate Office Research & Development Canada
This is the MetaCard mailing list.
Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/
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How does the "among" operator work?
Here's a simple operator syntax question. The list of operators shows
"is among" and "is not among" as Order 7 operators, along with
"contains". I had assumed that usage would be something like:
if "Fred" is among ("Adam","Fred","George") then doSomething
But this doesn't work. What is the correct syntax?
Regards,
David
--
David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street
PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4
Corporate Office Research & Development Canada
This is the MetaCard mailing list.
Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/
Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
ALL: MetaCard Advocacy
In a recent Mac online magazine article, the site's editor summarized
a bit of the origin of HyperCard and expressed a certain amount of
wistfulness over its lack of strong support from Apple. In the
interest of providing an "on the other hand" perspective, I emailed
him a little MetaCard info from my perspective. For those who might
be interested, I am including the following exchange of messages
between.
The key point (it's down at the bottom in his last message) is that
he posted my email and mentions considering adding a MetaCard section
to the site to accompany a HyperCard section, if there's interest. He
also welcomes any other point-of-view or informative articles from
the MetaCard community.
Regards,
David
The original HyperCard piece "The dream that was - Hypercard the
legend of the killer app":
http://www.1984-online.com/writers/hypercard.html
My first email follow-up "HyperCard - what happened next":
http://www.1984-online.com/writers/hypercardnext.html
1984 Mac Online editor's email address for submissions:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >>> From: David Cramer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>>> Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2000 10:17:24 -0600
>>>> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>> Subject: HyperCard and its descendants
>>>>
>>>> Hi Darren,
>>>>
>>>> I enjoyed your recent coverage of HyperCard's altruistic origins.
>>>> I've also become quite interested in What Happened Next with the
>>>> whole scripted card metaphor. There's a lot of talk about the death
>>>> of HyperCard lately, but I think to a large extent the energy going
>>>> into it is misdirected, not because HyperCard itself isn't dead, but
>>>> because its children are continuing the family tradition.
>>>>
>>>> SuperCard, HyperStudio, ToolBook, and MetaCard (as well as apparently
>>>> defunct OMO) all employ and extend the original HyperCard metaphor
>>>> far beyond what the original was funded to do. There's even an
>>>> interesting mailing list for these xTalk-based applications,
> >>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, which explores issues common to all of them.
> >>>
> >>> As far as I'm concerned, though, the breakthrough product is
>>>> MetaCard, . I wish two things for MetaCard. 1) That
>>>> more people knew about it. And 2) that the default interface wouldn't
>>>> look so disgusting to curious first-timers.
>>>>
>>>> I hope you already know something about MetaCard, which began in 1990
>>>> as an initiative to engineer a Unix version of a HyperCard-like
>>>> authoring program. There are many things I find amazing about
>>>> MetaCard.
>>>>
>>>> - There are versions for a whole slew of X-Windows and Linux,
>>>> Windows, and Mac
>>>> OS that allow incredible cross-platform development. The stacks are
>>>> interchangeable.
>>>>
>>>> - Virtually the entire MetaCard IDE is created in MetaCard itself! Every
>>>> dialog
>>>> box and menu, including the main menu (even the main menu in Mac OS) is in
>>>> fact a MetaCard MetaTalk-scripted object, and can be unlocked for complete
>>>> modification/customization.
>>>>
>>>> - It's extraordinarily Internet-capable. Any component of a
>>>>stack including
>>>> any
>>>> graphics or text or other stacks can be referenced externally and
>>>> equivalently
>>>> from local hard drive or any location on the Internet.
>>>>
>>>> - It's wicked fast.
>>>>
>>>> - There appear to be some awfully bright and really nice people
>>>> working on it.
>>>> Scott Raney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> deserves a medal for his devotion
>>>> to helping
>>>> people on the MetaCard mailing list.
>>>>
>>>> And there's work underway to provide a more elegant shell for
>>>> MetaCard, once again written in MetaCard itself, from the folks at
>>>> , which will probably be called Revolution, and
>>>> which is a gorgeous interface with some interesting expanded
>>>> functionality, and is currently in alpha.
>>>>
>>>> They also carry info for the MetaCard mailing list. The archives are
>>>> a great place to get a feel for what's being done with MetaCard.
>>>>
>>>> This is
Script references to objects in groups?
What is the correct scripting syntax for referring to the objects in a group? In a current situation, I have a group of buttons in a stack menu panel. If one of the buttons is hilited when the user presses the escape key, that button is still hilited the next time the menu opens. So I'd like to say something like: set the hilite of all the buttons in grp "mButtons" to false But this doesn't seem to work, although it seems to me I read of something like this earlier this year. If not, I can loop through the objects, but even then I can't find the syntax in the reference stacks. What am I missing? Happy New Year/Millennium! David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
RE: Windows menu emulation?
Y! I nailed it! I just figured out how to get a great emulation of Windows menuing. I can now handle a pretty complete range of interactions using menu heading button rollovers/ups,downs etc.; plus clicking on the menu heading button when the menu is already down works quite well (using a "click at" statement); and my menu behaves great, with screen snaps of the icons for menu items employed as button hilite states. I can't believe it works so well, after the amount of time it took to figure out how to intercept the limited messaging that takes place when a stack menu is open. But it really works! I realize, of course, that the current situation may be considered to be somewhat "fragile", since it depends on a couple of messages (focusIn and focusOut) that may not have been intended to be sent at all. And future versions of MetaCard may change the operation of those messages. I am not sure how to present a request to maintain a "quirk" most effectively! If anyone is interested in the way I have set up this interaction, by all means let me know. It's not that hard to explain, and/or I can pass along my example stack with the snaps it uses. Have a great new millennium David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
RE: Windows menu emulation?
At 2:10 PM -0800 12/30/99, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > I still would like to know what, if any, messaging is provided for >> while a stack menu is displayed in MetaCard. I can track the mouse >> position, for instance. But when you disrecommend a script-based >> workaround for this "problem", are the quotes to indicate it's not a >> problem for you? If so, it won't be a problem for me, either. I'll >> just tell my company that MetaCard is unfortunately unsatisfactory >> for our purposes, and we'll just have to continue to use Awfulware! > >But is really a problem for *your users*? As I said before, of the >thousands of other people using MetaCard and MetaCard applications, >none have reported it as a problem. Possibly you're the only one that >noticed it? Well, it's going to be a problem for my users simply because of what I am attempting to provide, which is fairly precise evaluation as to whether the user has selected a particular menu item. If I intend to respond to the user's mistakes, I don't want those "mistakes" to include something that would have worked correctly under the actual application they're being trained on, but that becomes an error only because I don't or can't author the emulated interface accurately. I could certainly decide on a bare-bones implementation which has no rollover effects, provides some sort of generic menuing that doesn't particularly resemble the target application, and so on. Fortunately, I have so much optimism regarding MetaCard (having actually purchased it, woohoo! ;-) that I totally reject the typifying of my message as either harping or raising a stink. If I gave that impression, I really do apologize! I am having too much fun to be harping!!! Actually, I'm so close to accomplishing what I want that it's probably the tantalizing nearness of the goal that makes me sound more frustrated than I am. Right now I know I could quite successfully use a really simple combination of focusIn and focusOut handlers in the card script of the menu panel stack, along with a simple flag to ignore the first click that opens the menu. It seems I could handle everything simply and cleanly this way if I could now just get the menu to go away by any scripting message at all, like sending escapeKey or something. I understand that the menu behavior should be automatic. On the other hand, wouldn't it be useful to be able to script a robot user? So if you wanted to show a process of selecting a menu item you could use a stack menu panel scripted to operate on autopilot, as it were. Like I said, I have no problem determining that the user has clicked on the menu heading button while the menu is down. If I could just send an escapeKey message to the menu somehow when that happened, that's all I'd need. That's why I was wondering what messages (besides focusIn/Out and some mouseLoc stuff) are sent, and more especially, to whom. > > Basically, the most desirable situation from my point of view would >> be that MetaCard would allow the handling of mouseUp and mouseDown >> messages to the menu heading button *somehow* while the stack menu is >> deployed. > >The problem here is that menu behavior is automatic. So even if you >got the messages, you wouldn't be able to do anything about it. The >only way to allow fixing it via scripts would be to require that >people use the "pulldown" command to open a menu and then add a >"closemenu" command that would have to be called to close the menu >after a selection had been made (or if they didn't). Pretty ugly. >Look and feel standard deviations *are* bugs, though of course they're >class 4s (1 is crash, 2 is data loss, 3 is significant impairment of >functionality. The priority for fixes is also a function of how >common the problem is and whether or not there is a workaround). But >regardless of whether you think it's a bug report or a feature >request, you're better off just sending it in to [EMAIL PROTECTED] >As long as you've taken the time to make sure that it's not already >implemented, the more information we have about the problems you face, >the better MetaCard will be at solving them. > Regards, > Scott If I can do something like send an escapeKey to make a menu go away, I don't even think there's anything to report, especially since I'm quite aware of how much non-standardness there is in interface features. Regards, David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
RE: Windows menu emulation?
Hi Scott, Well, the issue of emulation fidelity is an unfortunate monkey on the back of anyone authoring interactive computer application end-user training. Even if you largely ignore the issue, it's probably because the authoring software won't give you the control you need to do it, or at least do it well/economically/quickly/whatever. Perhaps I have higher hopes for MetaCard in this regard than any of your other customers (which I somehow find a little hard to believe). I still would like to know what, if any, messaging is provided for while a stack menu is displayed in MetaCard. I can track the mouse position, for instance. But when you disrecommend a script-based workaround for this "problem", are the quotes to indicate it's not a problem for you? If so, it won't be a problem for me, either. I'll just tell my company that MetaCard is unfortunately unsatisfactory for our purposes, and we'll just have to continue to use Awfulware! And when you say my best bet is just to wait, exactly how long should I wait? Basically, the most desirable situation from my point of view would be that MetaCard would allow the handling of mouseUp and mouseDown messages to the menu heading button *somehow* while the stack menu is deployed. Incidentally, the 99% of Windows users probably aren't aware that in Word 97, for example, clicking the menu heading button closes the menu and leaves the button in the up/rollover state on mouseUp, while My Computer windows do it on mouseDown. At least Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly on interface consistency. I would be happy to correspond further on the issues of event-handling and interface feedback states. (For example, guess how many button states can be found in Office 97 and Office 2000 products! Prizes may be awarded for the correct answer or for any reasonable justification for such byzantine interface design features.) To return to the value of the feature I guess I am requesting, remember that in the kind of interactive training I am developing, clicking in the wrong place should result in a response or error message. At this point, I can't respond to clicking on the menu heading button at all. If I were designing some kind of soft skills course, I could care less what MetaCard provided as long as it basically worked. But with closely monitored interactive stuff, I can't be so blasé. Besides, incompleteness bugs me. Speaking of bugs, should I report this as a bug? I really consider it more of a feature request, but I'd be happy to go the bug report route, too. Many regards and happy millenia to all and sundry, David (a stickler for completeness) At 12:10 PM -0800 12/29/99, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >From: Scott Raney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: RE: Windows menu emulation? >Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 16:17:20 -0700 (MST) >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII >In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >On Tue, 28 Dec 1999, David Cramer wrote: > >> After a fairly hectic Christmas, I am going to be returning to work >> on the following challenge tomorrow. So far, I have not received any >> responses that get to the heart of the basic question "What >> messages/properties can be referenced during the MetaCard stack menu >> process?" > >I think the fundamental problem here is that the behavior you desire, >clicking on the menu button to close an open menu panel, isn't built >in. Any script-based workaround for this "problem" would be >complicated, unstable, and likely to break when the feature gets >implemented in the future. So your best bet is just to wait. If it's >any consolation, no one has reported this as a problem before (or >*still*, according to our bug list), a fact that I would consider >significant since most look and feel deviations result in multiple bug >reports. I myself wasn't aware of this "feature" and I'd be willing >to bet that 99% of Windows and MacOS users aren't either. Clicking >any place other than on that button does close the menu, which is the >usual way people close menus they don't want. > Regards, > Scott > >> Hoping for enlightenment, >> >> David >> >> >> At 4:20 PM -0600 12/28/99, David Cramer wrote: >> >Well, I have just spent several days exploring all kinds of >> >approaches to Windows 95 menu emulation, with the result that I now >> >think I could get the results I need if only I could figure out one >> >last piece of this whole puzzle of messaging and targets. >> > >> >Here goes...is there a way to *script* the clicking of a stack panel >> >menu just as if a that stack or a menu item button on the stack had >> >b
RE: Windows menu emulation?
After a fairly hectic Christmas, I am going to be returning to work on the following challenge tomorrow. So far, I have not received any responses that get to the heart of the basic question "What messages/properties can be referenced during the MetaCard stack menu process?" Hoping for enlightenment, David At 4:20 PM -0600 12/28/99, David Cramer wrote: >Well, I have just spent several days exploring all kinds of >approaches to Windows 95 menu emulation, with the result that I now >think I could get the results I need if only I could figure out one >last piece of this whole puzzle of messaging and targets. > >Here goes...is there a way to *script* the clicking of a stack panel >menu just as if a that stack or a menu item button on the stack had >been clicked by a user? You see, the obstacle for me is still that >clicking on a MetaCard button, which is being used as a menu >heading, while the menu is already open, is a dead click, whereas >standard menu behavior on both Windows and Mac is to close the menu. >So what gives? Is there something simple I'm missing, or is there at >least a workaround that still allows me to utilize the convenience >of a built-in MetaCard paradigm, the menu stack? > >I am losing sleep, fingernails, and hair over this. Help! > >Regards, > >David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
RE: Windows menu emulation?
Well, I have just spent several days exploring all kinds of approaches to Windows 95 menu emulation, with the result that I now think I could get the results I need if only I could figure out one last piece of this whole puzzle of messaging and targets. Here goes...is there a way to *script* the clicking of a stack panel menu just as if a that stack or a menu item button on the stack had been clicked by a user? You see, the obstacle for me is still that clicking on a MetaCard button, which is being used as a menu heading, while the menu is already open, is a dead click, whereas standard menu behavior on both Windows and Mac is to close the menu. So what gives? Is there something simple I'm missing, or is there at least a workaround that still allows me to utilize the convenience of a built-in MetaCard paradigm, the menu stack? I am losing sleep, fingernails, and hair over this. Help! Regards, David -- David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4 Corporate Office Research & Development Canada This is the MetaCard mailing list. Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm
Windows menu emulation?
I've been having fun, sorta, working out how to emulate Windows menu
emulation with the new MC version 2.3B3, and I think I've got
everything worked out quite nicely except for one fairly minor
obstacle.
This is related to the whole issue of how to deal with the basic
effect (which I personally abhor) of pulldown menu buttons popping up
when the mouse rolls over them, then depressing on mousedown or
mouseup. I can do that fine, but in Windows itself, when a menu
heading has been clicked and its menu is open, you can click on the
menu heading again and the menu closes and the menu heading returns
to its elevated rollover state. I am unable to accomplish this, since
I don't seem to be able to intercept that mouse click on an opened
menu's heading button. With MetaCard's default mechanism, clicking on
an opened menu's pulldown button doesn't do anything at all.
Is there a message send, a target, or anything else that can be used
in order to accomplish this?
Please let me know if you don't get what I'm after, I'm operating on
a certain amount of lack of sleep trying to prepare for a
demonstration of MetaCard tomorrow morning and alasf ag ajga;g ;agjj
afa
aasdf;jf afaf
asdfd
!!!!?!?@?#!#!?@$%^
Regards,
David
--
David Cramer, Process Innovation Evangelist 87-1313 Border Street
PBSC Computer Training Centres (an IBM company) Winnipeg MB R3H 0X4
Corporate Office Research & Development Canada
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