RE: lingo-l locH limits

2004-09-07 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I would recommend keeping a list of the spites and the order 
 they need to be shown in, keep them no more than -+ 500 
 pixels off the side of the stage and only move them when its 
 their turn to come onto the stage.

That was actually my first approach. The calculations needed to figure
out if a sprite is on-stage or not took more time than simply
positioning the sprites as the scroll bar is dragged.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l locH limits

2004-09-07 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Sounds like the maxinteger?

No, the maxinteger is 2,147,483,647. It looks like the locH is a 16-bit
signed integer. If you set it to 65536, it actually sets it to 0. 32767
sets it to 32767, and 32768 sets it to -32768.

I've gotten around the problem pretty easily. I'm attaching a script to
each of my event sprites, and it calculates its theoretical locH. When
the time line window gets close to its location, it places itself.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l locH limits

2004-09-06 Thread Kerry Thompson
Is there a limit on the locH of a sprite? I'm trying to set it to 51688,
and it shows up as -13848.

The application is a time line. Drag the slider, and I reposition the
sprites relative to the slider's location.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l scaling 32bit bitmap grief

2004-08-31 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I'm getting aliasing/pixelation problems scaling down 32 
 bit+alpha graphics on dark backgrounds using 
 ratio based sprite(x).width/height
 
 any workarounds for this, bar literally running through a 
 bunch of pre-scaled members?

I seem to remember running into this a couple of years ago. I believe I
ended up scaling the member on the fly, not the sprite. My memory is a
bit hazy, but it's worth a try.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Cast window icons

2004-08-31 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I am using Director MX (9.0r383) with Mac OS 10.3.4.
 
 When I view the cast in list mode the icons which used to be down the 
 left hand side are no longer there. I think this happened when I 
 upgraded to OS 10.3 from 10.2 but am not absolutely sure. I can live 
 without the icons but they were convenient things to have and I would 
 prefer to have them back if I could.

It's a known bug with MX and 10.3. MX was released before 10.3, and
there were some issues. Nothing catastrophic that I've found, but
nagging little things like you noted.

I think the only solution is to upgrade to MX 2004. It's probably worth
it anyway to get the new features like multiple Flash sprites in a
single instance of the Xtra and JavaScript support.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l Time arithmetic

2004-08-24 Thread Kerry Thompson
Is there a built-in way to do time arithmetic like you do date
arithmetic?

I can get the number of days between two dates with something like
date(, mm, dd) - date (, mm, dd) (thanks to those who provided
that info last week).  Now I'm looking for a way to get the number of
minutes, hours, or seconds between two times. The two times can be on
different dates.

If there's not a built in-way, or some old code lying around, I can
figure it out easily enough. If it's already out there, though, I don't
want to reinvent the wheel.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Request for Shockwave 10 Content Proposals [was: RE: Lingo-l digest, Vol 1 #1344 - 15 msgs]

2004-08-20 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Not knowing MACR's take on the duel, I'd be extremely 
 skeptical about this.

Welcome Back, Pekka :-)

I'm not too skeptical, myself. I think it's a neat idea, and I might
submit an idea myself.

Macromedia is a pretty big company, with, I would assume, a pretty broad
spectrum of political views. They might shy away from really
controversial content like comparing Bush to Hitler, or saying Kerry
lied about his war record. I wouldn't expect them to be too heavy-handed
when it comes to the party you are supporting.

Maybe I'm naïve, but I tend to take them at their word. I think they're
primarily looking for interesting content to promote the Shockwave
brand, not a political party.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson



[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l XPOST: Private Methods

2004-08-20 Thread Kerry Thompson
Hi folks,

Forgive the cross post, but I realize there are people here who aren't
on some of the other Director lists.

This is one for OOP fools like me. I have a method for enforcing private
methods, and I'd be interested in comments. Fridays are slow anyway ^_^

on mGetData me, caller
  
  -- make sure I'm being called internally
  if caller  me then
alert (This is a private method.  RETURN  It cannot be called
from the outside)
return void
  end if
  
The call looks a little goofy:

  me.mGetData (me)

but it works.

It's not always foolproof, of course. You can find ways around it. It
is, though, one more way to enforce encapsulization, especially in a
multiple-developer environment.

Comments?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l XPOST: Private Methods

2004-08-20 Thread Kerry Thompson
   That looks like it'd slow things down a lot - and be a 
 pain to type.

Not really. The comparison takes a millisecond or two, and it's only
used in private methods. Typing is easy--type it once, and copy and
paste.

   And it could easily be got around:
 
   behav.mGetData(behav)
 
   I don't think there's a simple code method to enforce it.

Fair enough. Like I said, it's not foolproof--in fact, that's exactly
where it fails.

It would be nice if Lingo had true private methods and properties. Then
people like you and I wouldn't need to come up with workarounds.

Your method of privatization looks like it would work as well as the one
I proposed. Of course, neither is foolproof. The best we can do is to
make people think twice, or three times, before they access a private
method. Or, if you're so inclined, you could, as a team leader, see who
is breaking encapsulization and go by their cubicle and bludgeon them
into submission. Works better with dogs than cats.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Sprite alpha?

2004-08-19 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Just curious...is tabSprite = 
 sprite(pSpriteManager.mAllocateChannel())
 referencing back the exact spriteNum it should be 
 referencing?

Yes. My available sprite channels go from 10-500, and the tab sprites
are being allocated in 12-14. Checked it in the debugger.

  And/or, did you try ink=36?

Background transparent? Hmm...no, I didn't try that. I tried copy and
matte. Hold on...nope, 36 does the same thing.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson 


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Sprite alpha?

2004-08-19 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Did you check if  your placeholder the sprites are colourized 
 (in the pi)?

Bingo! That's it, Rob. Thanks.

I colorized them yesterday when I was trying to set the color of a
#shape sprite (rather than a #vectorShape sprite).

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Sprite alpha?

2004-08-19 Thread Kerry Thompson
 wild guess Sometime earlier you allocate this channel to a 
 sprite that 
 needs to have its #color or #foreColor altered and that this setting 
 persists. Can you try setting these props to rgb(0,0,0) in 
 your allocation routine? /speculation

Yep, that's it Sean. You and Rob can split the grand prize.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Request for Shockwave 10 Content Proposals

2004-08-19 Thread Kerry Thompson
 If so, Macromedia would be 
 interested in talking to you about creating cool, viral, 
 election-themed Shockwave 10 content

Viral? 

Beware geeks bearing gifts.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l Setting vector colors

2004-08-18 Thread Kerry Thompson
I'm trying to set the color of a vector graphic at runtime. I need to
give it an rgb value, but it seems to only want to take palette colors.

Here's my code:

  channelColorList = [160104100, 192138100, 189180112, 135162111,
112147110, 101155153, 98134145, 95113146, 127104147, 131095122]

(in a loop:)
  channelMember.rect = channelRect
  channelSprite = pSpriteManager.mAllocateChannel()
  sprite(channelSprite).member = channelMember
  sprite(channelSprite).rect = channelMember.rect
  sprite(channelSprite).loc = point(channelLeft, channelTop)
  sprite(channelSprite).rect = rect(channelLeft, channelTop, channelLeft
+ channelRect.right, channelTop + channelRect.bottom)
  sprite(channelSprite).ink = 0
  sprite(channelSprite).foreColor = channelColorList[i]

channelMember is the vector graphic. I've tried it using
RGB(#YADAYADA), and that doesn't work any better. The forecolor always
ends up 108, it seems.

What do I do to set the color?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Setting vector colors

2004-08-18 Thread Kerry Thompson
 member(vect).strokeColor = rgb( 255, 1, 158 ) 
 member(vect).fillColor = rgb( 104, 1, 158 ) 
 member(vect).endColor = rgb( 104, 200, 158 ) 
 member(vect).backgroundColor = rgb( 35, 1, 158 )
 
 these work for me

Thanks, Buzz. That's what I was looking for.

I've been scratching my head, because setting the sprite's forecolor in
the message window doesn't work either, but setting it in the pi does
(the sprite, not the member). Now, why can't those properties be
documented?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Setting vector colors

2004-08-18 Thread Kerry Thompson
 member(vect).strokeColor = rgb( 255, 1, 158 ) 
 member(vect).fillColor = rgb( 104, 1, 158 ) 
 member(vect).endColor = rgb( 104, 200, 158 ) 
 member(vect).backgroundColor = rgb( 35, 1, 158 )
 
 these work for me

Ok, I think I see what's happening. My cast member was a #shape, which
doesn't have those properties. I created a #vectorShape, and it does.

Hmmm...I'm not even sure how I created the #shape in the first place. I
think I copied it from an old program. Is that something that's changed
in the last few incarnations of Director? I'm still on plain MX.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Converting to Japanese

2004-08-06 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I author on either win2k or xp with japanese locale 
 installed.

By golly, you're right. That would work! Good show, Anand.

You can download Microsoft's Japanese, Chinese, and Korean IME's here:
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/preview.aspx?AssetID=HA0103473610
33CTT=6Origin=EC010553071033

I still prefer to have the actual Japanese/Chinese/Korean system to test
on, but that should work for development.

 To view the 
 CD/DVD the target system also needs to be configured with the 
 japanese locale...

And therein lies the rub. I do a lot of educational development, and a
lot of schools won't install the Japanese IME. For one thing, it's a 50
MB download. Plus, a lot of schools and companies tightly control what
can be installed on their systems.

In my experience, people who need or want Japanese either have a
Japanese system, or one of the add-ins (e.g. Twin Bridge) installed.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Converting to Japanese

2004-08-05 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I've been developing CD-ROMs for a Japanese client for over a 
 year now...i use D8.5 and have  embedded the appropriate 
 japanese fonts that i require...my target is only windows 
 systems though..
 
 content is in XML format...i parse that in flash and pass the 
 html text to d8.5 which then renders them just fine!

Interesting, Anand. I've tried embedding Japanese fonts, with no luck,
at least on English Windows/Director.

Could you share with us your technique? What font do you use? Is it a
Shift-JIS font? It's not Unicode, I presume.

I'm really interested. I can display Japanese and Chinese in programs
like Outlook and Word, but not Director. In fact, I have the Chinese and
Japanese IME (it's a free download from Microsoft), and I can use it in
Outlook, but not in Director.

It would be great if you could share your secrets with us. I love to be
proven wrong--it means I've learned something.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l OOP: shortest handler name

2004-08-05 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I tried
 
 on x
 end
 
 and called it with:
 
 x()
 
 And it worked!
 
 However I am sure there must be something wrong with it. 
 There must be a reason for the me after all.

You need the me if you're going to refer to that object or sprite at
all. Mouse events and the like need me.

In general, I would very, very strongly advise you NOT to use 'x' as a
handler name. It makes no difference in execution time, because the
names are tokenized. Any time savings you would see by using it would be
more than offset by the next poor sucker who tries to maintain your
code. And that next poor sucker may be you, six months from now.

Use meaningful variable and handler names. It's THE first rule of
reusable programming.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Director Multilingual IDE

2004-07-29 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Thanks. Pity there are these limitations. Let's say in 
 Dreamweaver you can install some other language packages that 
 would change the default UI language

Can you do that in DreamWeaver? It would be nice, but I don't know of a
single application that allows you to use your choice of language. Do
you?

I've done one product where you could switch the UI from English to
Spanish, and vice-versa. Lots of issues with just one [known] language.

Think about what it means to do a UI in a new language. All the
text--menus, prompts, etc.--have to be translated. All the dialog boxes
have to be resized. The help has to be translated. If you go outside ISO
8859.1, you have to allow for other code pages. 

There are cross-platform issues. Mac and Windows have different
encodings. If everybody used Unicode, it would be easier, but we don't.

Cultural issues are important, too, in localization. You might want a
different version for Taiwan and Beijing, even though they speak the
same language. Usage is different. There are other cultural issues you
would never think of. You like the Robin Hood-like fox character in that
math program? His green hat would never sell in China.

There's the marketing and sales side, too. Publishers would lose a lot
of unit sales if the UI language could be changed at will.

No, it's a nice idea, but, at this point in the computer industry, I'm
afraid it's no more than a wishful thinking.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Director Multilingual IDE

2004-07-28 Thread Kerry Thompson
 You may download Director in a couple of language flavors. I 
 wonder, was this app designed to exist only in these 
 incarnations or is it possible to change its environment 
 language to some other one?

The Director languages have more to do with the development UI you see
than the languages you can use in your app.

There are two basic versions of Director, single- and multi-byte.
English, German, and French are the single-byte versions, and Japanese
and Korean are the multi-byte versions. But, that doesn't mean you can't
display English on Japanese Director.

You can do just about any Western European language with any of the
European versions of Director, and probably with Japanese and Korean as
well. With a few exceptions, all Western European languages use the same
character set, ANSI or ISO 8859.1. Most of the same characters are found
in the Mac character set as well.

You might have some problems with languages such as Russian or Greek,
depending on the font you use. You probably won't have much joy with
bidirectional languages (Hebrew, Arabic, Farsi).

You can use Japanese Director to develop in Japanese, Chinese
(simplified and traditional), and Korean. Just install it on the target
language system and develop away.

I believe MX Developer's Journal has a section on localization in
August. It was slated to appear in July originally, but got pushed back
a month. I believe James Newton will have an article on multilingual
development that's well worth watching for.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Director Multilingual IDE

2004-07-28 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Norwegian included in this as well?

Yes ^_^

The last I checked, ISO 8859.1 covers French, Spanish, Catalan, Basque,
Portuguese, Italian, Albanian), Rhaeto-Romanic, Dutch), German, Danish,
Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Faroese, Icelandic, Irish, Scottish, and
English, and, incidentally, also Afrikaans and Swahili. So, it
effectively covers Western Europe, North America, Central America, and
most of Australia and Africa as well.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Director Multilingual IDE

2004-07-28 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Can i change the UI 
 language of the application itself? That is, let's say in 
 Director you go to File  Save and Compact, can all these 
 menus be translated to other language?

No.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l All those DLLs

2004-07-15 Thread Kerry Thompson
 For fast start projectors, the DLLs are external.

There's more to it than that. It's a matter of insuring that your
projector plays at all.

The scenario: a projector is an executable, and it loads the .dll
(dynamic link library) files at runtime. Anybody who has programmed in
C/C++ knows all about that.

When Windows looks for a .dll, it looks in certain folders, in this
order:
- The directory where the executable module for the current process is
located. 
- The current directory. 
- The Windows system directory. 
- The Windows directory. 
- The directories listed in the PATH environment variable. 

Now, here's the rub. Sometimes installers will put Dirapi.dll, Iml32.dl,
and/or msvcrt.dll into the Windows system directory. If somebody has an
old version that's incompatible with your projector, and you don't
provide the right version (in your executable folder), your projector
may fail, or you may get weird error messages.

Msvcrt.dll is a Microsoft C/C++ runtime library. I believe Director
needs the version from Visual C++ 6.0 or later. Whichever one is in your
Director program directory is the right one (Director itself, not your
projector).

I believe dirapi.dll and iml32.dll are Macromedia dll's. I'm not sure
about Tbrsrc.dll.

I can see how it would affect fast start projectors. If the .dll is
right there, your projector doesn't have to ask Windows to go looking
for it.

I don't see how it can help having it in the xtras directory, though,
unless they are directly associated with one of the xtras. I have always
put them in the projector folder.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l All those DLLs

2004-07-15 Thread Kerry Thompson
 But if the projector is not Fast Start, aren't the DLLs 
 simply included within the executable?

No, I don't think so. It's been 4-5 years since I've programmed in C++,
so I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure things are still the same.

First, look at the name--dynamic link library. That suggests that it's
linked dynamically, i.e. at run time.

The idea of a .dll is to have some code that different programs can use.
The msvcrt (for Microsoft Visual C Run Time) dll is a good example.
Virtually every C/C++ program written with Visual C++, including
Director, uses that runtime library. Some Visual Basic programs use it
too--maybe a lot of them.

If you want to use a .dll in a C/C++ program, you generally specifically
load it. I forget the syntax, but it's something like
loadLibrary(library.dll).

There is such a thing as a statically-linked dll, but I'm not familiar
enough with their use to talk about them. They may be included in the
executable, but I believe they are less often used.

When you create an executable in C/C++, it's typically at two-step
process. First, you compile all your source code files. That turns them
into machine language, but with a lot of unresolved references--objects,
variables, methods, etc. in other source files and .dll's.

The second step is to link them all together. That resolves the
references. Together, the compile-link process is usually called
building.

That typically does not include the .dll in the executable. In fact, if
you don't specifically load the .dll in your code, at the right time,
you will get errors, either at run time or during the build (I don't
remember exactly--it's been too long).

HTH.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l multilanguage project

2004-07-15 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Perhaps this is the wrong forum but I know there are quite a few 
 international folks on this list and others who have done quite a few 
 international projects... Anyway, I am about to embark upon a 
 multilanguage project with multilanguage installers and had a few 
 questions about double-byte fonts.

May I suggest that you pick up a copy of the July issue of MX
Developer's Journal? They have a section devoted to multilingual
projects this month. There are articles by luminaries such as James
Newton, Tab Julius, and even ordinary guys like (ahem) me.

 We tend to use flash alot for UI stuff, and seeing how it generally 
 supports unicode, we think that would be the best route to 
 take.

Are you going to use the swf files in Director? You won't be able to
pass strings back and forth, because Director doesn't support Unicode.
There are rather intricate workarounds--search the archives for the past
6 months or so for Mark Jonkman.

If you're going to do text input in Director, it's pretty much taken
care of by the system, but you'll get multibyte Japanese text encoded in
EUC or Shift-JIS. Once again, (ahem) my article contains more details.

 what about dynamic input text 
 with double-byte characters? One localization that we are doing is 
 Japanese, and I know there are 4 different scripts for the 
 language, but 
 generally what is the best script to use, Romanji?

The only way to do a legitimate Japanese product is to support all 4
Japanese scripts: kanji, hiragana, katakana, and romaji. Romaji is the
least important of the four, and absolutely cannot be used as the sole
input. You would be laughed out of the Japanese market.

You don't have to do much to support Japanese input, though. Japanese
Osen (Windows, Mac) have built-in IME's (Input Method Editor). When a
user types in some text, you'll get whatever he types in, and the system
will recognize it as kanji, hiragana, etc.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l All those DLLs

2004-07-15 Thread Kerry Thompson
 So, then, you are suggesting that there is no such thing as a single 
 icon self-contained executable Director movie on Windows? I 
 don't think that is the case.

You may be right--I'm not sure. I don't think the .dll's are included in
a normal projector, but I'm too far away from the C/C++ world to know
for sure. The Macromedia tech notes I've read suggest you may be right.

I know that for a fast-start projector, media and xtras are packaged
externally, and Shockwave compression is used. Because of the Shockwave
compression, you have to have the .dll's externally.

I include the .dll's in my program directory because I've had problems
in the past with conflicts with outdated versions. I'm not certain that
is still the case, but it certainly does no harm.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l All those DLLs

2004-07-15 Thread Kerry Thompson
 1. Look inside the projector, are the DLL's there? If yes, 
 unpack them to a temp directory and link against those 
 temporary copies.

Aha! Now it makes sense. The .dll's are packaged with the .exe, just
like the xtras, but are not really part of the core executable.
They're still loaded at runtime, after unpacking. It appears they aren't
statically linked.

Excellent write-up, Tom. Thanks. It clears up a lot.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l multilanguage project

2004-07-15 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Thanks for the info about the hiragana and katakana info... 
 Would it be 
 safe to say that most translation agencies worth their salt should 
 provide material in all 4 scripts?

Probably, but it's more accurate to say they would provide it as a
Japanese speaker would expect to see it.

Japanese isn't either-or. They mix the four script types. People's
names, for example, are often written in Kanji for the family name, and
Hiragana for the given name.

Kanji are the ideograms they borrowed from Chinese (and, by and large,
have the same meaning as in Chinese). They probably account for about
40-50% of the text you will see on any given page of a Japanese book or
magazine (or Web site).

The kana are phonetic characters. Hiragana is for native Japanese words,
and Katakana is used for loan words, most often from English. The two
scripts match character for character, with the same pronunciation for
corresponding characters. Each character represents a syllable, and,
with the exception of the 'n' sound, all end in a vowel. Check out the
Romanization of Japanese words, and you'll see that words always end
with a vowel or an n. Parenthetically, Mandarin is pretty much the same,
except they have a few more consonant endings like 'ng', but never a
stopped consonant (k, t, d, b, etc.) In fact, you'll find most native
Japanese and Mandarin Chinese speakers will have a lot of trouble with
the words stopped consonant ^_^

Romaji (note there's no 'n') is for foreign words to be written in their
native script--often names (people's names, brand names), but often just
because it looks cool, or there's no way to accurately spell it with the
kana.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson

P.S: I bet you didn't know that written English uses ideograms, just
like Chinese. So does German, French, Turkish, Russian, Arabic...almost
every written languages use ideograms.


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l OS X Text wrap

2004-07-12 Thread Kerry Thompson
OS X (Panther), Dir MX.

I use this string for a DirectOS alert box with this code: 

alertMsg = Press OK to enter Dedicated Key Scanning mode.

For some reason, OS X wants to wrap the last word to the next line, so I
get

   Press OK to enter Dedicated Key Scanning 
   mode.

I'd write it off as a DirectOS anomaly, except it shows up that way in
the debugger, too, before I ever pass it to dosMessageBox, when I hover
the mouse over the string to get the rollover text.

It displays correctly in an alert box, and of course the alert box
doesn't have the icon the dosMessageBox has.

Any ideas what could be causing this?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Get a Director variable value from within a swf sprite

2004-07-08 Thread Kerry Thompson
  Or, you could do a getURL:Lingo call to a Director handler 
 that would
 return the value of the variable.
 
 This is what I wasn't able to figure out the correct syntax for.

I was thinking about something like this. In Flash:

getURL(lingo:variableStatusRequest);

and in Director:

on variableStatusRequest
me.pMySprite.setVariable(variableName, newValue)
end

You can make it a lot more flexible, but that's the basic approach I'd
use.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Get a Director variable value from within a swf sprite

2004-07-07 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I figured I could keep checking 
 what the value was until the as code got it, then move on in 
 the function.  I just can't figure out the right syntax to do that.

Well, how about a little different approach. You could have Director
call setVariable, and then all you would need to do in Flash would be to
watch the variable.

Or, you could do a getURL:Lingo call to a Director handler that would
return the value of the variable.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Really unloading members

2004-07-01 Thread Kerry Thompson
Well, well. Indeed, it does work. I tried unLoad, which purports to do
the same thing, with no result, but unLoadMember does the trick.

In fact, I did a little experimenting, and came up with an even simpler
script which seems to work as well:

on mUnloadMembers me
  unloadMember
end

I think Mare remarked that unloadMember with an argument just marks the
member for unloading. It appears you don't even have to do that.

Thanks!

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson

 I have my director project setup similar to what you have.  
 Everything is loaded and linked on the fly, and after 
 something is placed onto the stage, they are added to a 
 global list that stores all these members.  During some 
 interval, I traverse through the list and call unload on each 
 member. In the past, this seems to work well.  I took another 
 look today and noticed that the memory usage was still 
 creeping up.  Rather than take the painful approach on 
 unlinking castlib, I experimented with unLoadMember without 
 any parameters, and this seems to work.
 
 to use your example, my code now looks like this:
 
 on mUnloadMembers me
  if pMemberList.count  0 then
repeat with i = 1 to pMemberList.count
  pMemberList[i].unload()
end repeat
unLoadMember 
  end if
 
  pMemberList = []
 
 This seems a much simpler and faster solution than relinking 
 castlibs.  Maybe you could give it a try?


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Fusion City

2004-07-01 Thread Kerry Thompson
 are you able to do freelance work snip

Jonathan, was this meant for the list at large, or were you asking
somebody in particular?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l xpost: Really Unloading Members Solved

2004-06-29 Thread Kerry Thompson
Forgive the cross-post, but I posted the question on a couple of lists
yesterday, so I'm posting my solution today.

I was having memory problems because I was loading all my assets
dynamically, through code, not in the score. Cast and score memory kept
creeping up, and I couldn't get Director to release the cast members.

Cole Tierney set me on the right track. He suggested I temporarily
unplug my linked casts. That did the trick.

I created a dummy cast with nothing in it, and every time I go to a new
activity, I call this:

on mUnloadMembers me
  if pMemberList.count  0 then
repeat with i = 1 to pMemberList.count
  pMemberList[i].unload()
end repeat

repeat with i = 2 to 7 -- 1 is internal
  fName = the fileName of castLib i
  the fileName of castLib i = the moviePath  dummy
  the fileName of castLib i = fName
end repeat
  end if
  
  pMemberList = []
  
end unloadMembers

There's some other stuff I have to do--I have to take a snapshot of the
stage and put it on stage while I'm resetting the casts. Otherwise stuff
disappears and reappears as the casts are reset.

That's basically the solution, short of going to a new movie and back
(that would have been a major rewrite).

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l Really unloading members

2004-06-28 Thread Kerry Thompson
I think this has been discussed before, but I can't find it in the
archives.

I need to unload members from memory, and unloadMember doesn't seem to
be working. Dir MX, Win XP Pro and Mac OS X (Panther).

My program is mostly code. I have a number of zero-pixel holder sprites
that I load members into as I need them. Any kind of member--video,
audio, text, graphics, and so on.

If I don't actively manage the unloading, the memory usage quickly
climbs until things stop working.

So I put in some code to unload an activity's assets when I leave that
activity. It's in an object, and here's the relevant code:

on mUnloadMembers me
  if pMemberList.count  0 then
repeat with i = 1 to pMemberList.count
  pMemberList[i].unload()
end repeat
  end if
  
  pMemberList = []
end unloadMembers

I've checked, and the list contains the members I want to unload. For
example, I'm at a break point in the debugger, and pMemberList[i] is
(member 28 of castLib 4).

But memory usage continues to climb as fast as if I weren't doing
anything. I check the loaded property of the member in the debugger, and
it stays true even after it has been specifically unloaded.

This isn't a code memory leak--in the memory inspector, the Used by
Program memory stays pretty constant. The Cast and Score memory is
what's killing me.

Any ideas? How can I _really_ unload cast members?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l Hi-res printer fonts

2004-06-24 Thread Kerry Thompson
I need to get a high-res (1200 dpi) printer font for Chinese and
Cyrillic--we need to do high-quality print output. Does anybody have any
ideas how to get those? I've only dealt with on-screen fonts.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Hi-res printer fonts

2004-06-24 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Are you thinking about using these in Director somehow, or for some 
 other purpose?

I need to be able to print high-quality (1200 dpi) text with PrintOMatic
from Director, eventually. At the moment, I need the fonts to go in a
Quark File for a presentation.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Hi-res printer fonts

2004-06-24 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Wouldn't the problem be the resolution you are printing at?
 
 I mean, if you are using POM to print the director screen, 
 you have only 
 the number of pixels as the screen size.

I'm using POM, but I'm not printing the screen. I'm setting up a table
and populating it with text.

I'll run some tests. It may work just fine if I set the printer to
high-quality text. TT is vector-based, so it should work.

I think the difficult I ran into was that I was working on Windows, and
Quark was on the Mac. I expected the Russian text to show up on the Mac
(it's just Times New Roman, which has Cyrillic in it, at least on
Windows). Also, I'm not very familiar with Quark, and I don't know if it
has the same font capabilities as Word. I'll have to experiment.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l dual monitor projector?

2004-06-22 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I am about to start a project which will use two monitors - 
 one will run 
 video and the other the interface. Has anyone done this? Is 
 the best way to 
 treat the stage as one large stage covering both monitors?
 Any pitfalls? Advice?

Colin gave you some good advice. I would emphasize Colin's advice about
checking the deskTopRectList. Some people will have their two monitors
set to different resolutions, even on a Mac, so full-screen really isn't
an option.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson 


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l FileIO: writeReturn method failure

2004-06-17 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Hi Kerry,
 
 Pity this doesn't work even after I've used all possible 
 error checking.

To tell the truth, I have never tried writing a return like that. Try
making a return part of the string you're writing, rather than writing
it separately. E.g.,

myStr = One:   1  RETURN

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l Stopping a Flash sprite

2004-06-16 Thread Kerry Thompson
I'm getting a white flash on screen when I stop a Flash sprite from
Lingo.

The sprite is not dts, and it's lock-step. The sprite is assigned
dynamically at run time, from an existing linked member.

The artist and I are trying to figure out if it's his animations, or my
code. When I issue a pFlashSprite.stop() command, I thought that would
be the same as goToAndStop in Flash. IOW, it stops the animation, but
leaves the current frame on the screen.

But maybe not. Would it give me a blank screen for a frame while I load
the next animation? If so, how can I avoid that empty frame? 

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Stopping a Flash sprite

2004-06-16 Thread Kerry Thompson
   Dunno what IOW means but if your problem is that the 
 Flash sprite 
 remains in the screen buffer, then you can refresh it by doing the 
 stageColor = the stageColor.

IOW = In Other Words.

The problem seems that the flash sprite *doesn't* stay in the screen
buffer. If it did, I don't think I would be getting the white flash.

   Here´s one possible hack. How about changing the 
 sprite´s member for a 
 bitmap whose image is the Flash movie in the frame that has 
 stopped? You 
 could do this on the fly (remember to set the posterFrame of 
 the Flash 
 member first) or have a bitmap ready for this.

That's an idea. I would want the poster frame to be the current frame--I
can get that from the frame() function.

How about the hold function? Would that keep the current frame showing?
There's no audio, so it doesn't matter that the audio keeps playing.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson



[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Stopping a Flash sprite

2004-06-16 Thread Kerry Thompson
   Yup. That´s in case you to do it realtime. But if that 
 image it will 
 always be the same and if you´re not trying to save space, 
 then it´d be 
 faster to have the bitmap already created and just doing the sprite 
 member´s swap realtime.

It has to be realtime. It's a skip intro thing--click the mouse to
skip over the annoying intro animation.

   I know it but never tried it myself... but looks like 
 the static 
 property would also do the job.

Do you mean set #static to true? Hmmm... hadn't thought of that. I like
it. It would be easier than the dozen or so lines of code to get the
frame, grab the bitmap, put it in a cast member and on stage.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson



[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l FileIO: writeReturn method failure

2004-06-16 Thread Kerry Thompson
 But if you 
 simply use it you'll get an error saying Symbol expected.

Are you sure the file is being created? You should put a check in after
the new() statement:

  fileIO = xtra(FileIO).new()
  if not objectP(fileIO ) then
alert FileIO not installed.
  end if
 
You should also check the status of each call with status:

  fileIO.createFile(filePath)  
  err = status(fileXtra)
  if err  0 then
-- you have a problem.
-- check the docs.
  end if

 Further more, if you paste this function via the popup menu 
 from the Scripting Xtras, this method would be pasted with 2
 arguments: symbol and platform ones. How do I use this 
 function after all?

I don't use the scripting xtra, so I'm not sure. The rest of the code
looks ok. Check for errors and you'll likely find the problem.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l printing from director

2004-06-13 Thread Kerry Thompson
 i need to print from my projector in an easy way and 
 with no bugs or 
 expensive xtras do any body knows how to do it

PrintOMatic Lite is the best solution. It depends on your definition of
expensive. I don't think it's free, but it's cheaper than the full
version.

I use PrintOMatic, and it's pretty stable.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Event processing (was: pass with prepareMovie not possible?)

2004-06-10 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Does this sound about right, or does anyone have any further 
 insights to offer about the event processing model? In 
 particular, can anyone think of any further peculiarities 
 relating to MIAWs, LDMs or anything else where cast 
 references might be skewed in some way?

It sounds right. It's not complete, but I assume you did that for
brevity.

Here are some things to look for:
 - prepareSprite happens before startMovie
 - the same event can be processed multiple times if multiple behaviors
with handlers for that event are attached to a sprite

You might want to take a look at Bruce Epstein's Lingo in a Nutshell.
It's out of date in a lot of ways--it hasn't been updated since 6.5--but
it covers the event-handling model very thoroughly.

Or was it Director in a Nutshell? One of the two--maybe both of them.
I think Lingo.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Controlling a Kiosk monitor

2004-06-07 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Hello all:
 
 Well par for the course just before final delivery my client 
 has asked for 
 an aside.  He wants to know if I can control the  kiosk 
 monitor to have it 
 turn on at 8am and turn off at 9pm every day.

Platform?


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l When and when

2004-06-07 Thread Kerry Thompson
 First, I'm very happy as I managed to defend my M.A. thesis 
 to an excellent mark. Second, I'm a bit confused: when do I 
 use variables and when do I use functions straight ahead?

Congratulations!

Here's a rule of thumb I apply to decisions about when to use a variable
and when to use a function.

If the value you are seeking needs to be calculated, use a function. If
it is something you can store for later use (even though it may change),
use a variable.

And remember, variables are almost always faster than functions.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l [x-post] A Common Question - Director XML/Web Services

2004-06-04 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any resource on where to 
 get started on the Director end! I've read a few articles 
 about XML, and that proves to be already a pain with DMX's 
 XML parser... I recall an alternative solution but can't find 
 a reference to it :(

I use Andrew White's xml parser. I works just like Director's except
without the memory leak.

Or, if you have MX 2004, I understand the memory lean was fixed. It
might be faster than Andrew White's, too--it should be compiled, where
Andrew's is in Lingo.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Language Local Setting

2004-06-03 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I have created a projector on Windows English operation 
 system. Now when I change the language local setting to Czech 
 and run the projector it gives error. Pl help!


Hey, Deepesh, ya gotta give more info. Would you call your doctor and
say I don't feel good. What do I do?

So a few questions.

- OS
- Dir version
- What error? When
- If it's a script error, do you have a projector.ini file (projector
being the name of your projector) with these lines:

[Lingo]
DisplayFullLingoErrorText=1

Do you have embedded fonts?

Give us something to work with, and we can make suggestions,

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Language Local Setting

2004-06-03 Thread Kerry Thompson
 The details of the problem are as under:
 
 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. Details are:
 
 
 OS - Windows 2000/ Win 98
 Director version - MX2004
 Error: When I run the projector the following msg appears:
 A Fatal Error has occured. CLick ok to quit.

Great--now we have something to go on ^_^

Can you tell how far the program gets before it crashes? Can you set the
debugPlaybackEnabled = TRUE and add some puts? Like, put prepareMovie
done, etc?

Sorry I can't test it myself--right hand in a sling, index finger In a
splint, dexterity limited.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Verbose vs Dotose

2004-06-02 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I get an error using this:
 
 put(castLib(1).member(1).name)
 
 and this one works
 
 put the name of member 1 of castLib 1
 
 Does that mean that it'll work only in verbose syntax?

Version?


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Dot syntax for 'delete the last char of...'

2004-05-26 Thread Kerry Thompson
  Is there a way of expressing delete the last char of 
 myString using
  dot syntax?
 
 Yes: delete myString[myString.char.count]

With the caveat that it only works in MX 2004.

Cheers to the Director team for a more complete dot syntax this time
around!

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l Setting file access

2004-05-24 Thread Kerry Thompson
Is there any way to set file access privileges from Director?

I'm creating some user tracking files on OS X, and I want any user to be
able to read and write that file.

Ideally, I'd create a folder in Shared, and give all users read and
write access. Can you do that from Director?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Setting file access

2004-05-24 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I use BuddyApi for everything like that

That was my first instinct, too, but I don't see a way to do that.
Setting file attributes just sets them for the current user.

I tried--created a file in shared, set the attributes in Buddy,
switched users--cannot access the file.

OS X 10.3, Dir MX.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Setting file access

2004-05-24 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Looks like buddy can do this:
 baSetFilePermissions( Macintosh HD:users:shared:somefile, 
 o, rw )
 
 But you might not need the above. I'd do a quick test. If the file is 
 created while the user is running the program and is created in the 
 shared folder, you may find that the file is already accessible by 
 others.

Funny, my Buddy docs didn't list that format for the call.

I'll give it a try. Thank, Cole.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l turning off useHypertextStyles thru Lingo REPOST

2004-05-24 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Sorry, haven't seen either of those... Don't know how that 
 could happen--I watch my email around the clock... Can I 
 persuade someone to resend, perhaps off-list? Many thanks! 
 Sorry for the extra traffic. S.

I've got him covered, folks. No reason for him to get 10 copies ^_^

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Setting file access

2004-05-24 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Looks like buddy can do this:
 baSetFilePermissions( Macintosh HD:users:shared:somefile, 
 o, rw )

Thanks, Cole, Kurt. That did the trick. I had to update from Buddy 1.4
to 1.5 to get the OS X tricks.

Cole, it turns out that creating the file isn't enough. Other users will
have read-only access, in my tests. Buddy did the trick nicely, though.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l Setting rights

2004-05-20 Thread Kerry Thompson
I need to set rights on a file when I write it. It want it to be
readable and writeable by any user.

The best option appears to be to use fx_FileSetWriteState and
fx_FolderSetWriteState from FileXtra4.

Can anybody verify that if, say, I'm logged in as an administrator and
create a file, then later log on as a limited user, I can still access
this file?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Font problem

2004-05-18 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I tried to use the Czech font in DirectorMX2004 - but some 
 characters changes to other characters. Even by dynamically 
 loading the text form XML or text files the characters like u 
 changes to u. Please help me with this!

Ah, if you could only wait a couple of months, you could read the
article I just wrote.

In the meantime, I think you're running into a code page problem. Either
that, or you're using Unicode, which Director doesn't support. Flash
does, even in Director--just don't try to pass a Unicode string to or
from Director.

Windows uses ANSI encoding for text--kind of an extension of the old
ASCII encoding. ASCII is a 7-bit standard, and only covers characters
0-127. ANSI defines the other 128 characters. The upper range of ANSI is
where you will find characters like ü, È, and other accented characters
used in Western European languages. Macintosh uses a similar encoding,
but there are some differences in the top 128 characters.

ANSI is essentially the same as ISO 8859-1, or Latin 1, a specification
that defines character codes for just about every Western European
language. And here's the rub--Czech isn't Western European, and isn't
covered by ANSI or ISO 8859-1. It's specified by ISO 8859-2, which
covers Central and Eastern European languages that use the Roman
alphabet (as opposed to, say, Cyrillic or Greek).

Chances are that your font has Czech characters in it, but you can't get
to them. That's because the Czech characters are on code page 1250, and
English Windows, and English Director, uses Code Page 1252. 

Font publishers often include several national character sets--it's
simpler if you can just install Arial, and have Roman 1 on an English
system and Cyrillic on a Russian system. You could imagine a font as a
stack, something like this:
Code Page   ISO 8859
-   
12508859-2
12518859-5 (Cyrillic)
12528859-1 (Latin 1)
12538859-7 (Greek)
12548859-9 (Turkish)
12558859-8 (Hebrew)

And so on--read my article for more details.

Director doesn’t do a good job with anything other than code page 1252,
ISO 8859-1 on Windows, and the corresponding encoding on Macintosh. It's
a shame, really, because I can install a Russian font on my computer and
type a letter in Russian with Word (well, I could if I spoke Russian).

The best work-around I have found is to create a Czech font on code page
1252 and embed it in Director. It's more work than it needs to be, but
at least it works.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson



[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Font problem

2004-05-18 Thread Kerry Thompson
 This is a GREAT response, and should be codified somewhere in 
 the www.macromedia.com/support/director site.

*blush* 

Well, fwiw, that was from an article I submitted for the MX User's
Journal. If it's accepted and published, it will at least be in print.

Slava, you said you have had success with these fonts. I'm guessing that
you are able to get Czech fonts to display on Latin-2 (code page 1250)
systems, and Russian on CP 1251 systems. I've had some success with
embedding Czech and Russian fonts on English Windows. You can get the
display to work sometimes, but xplat is pretty dicey, and of course,
input without a Russian keyboard is hopeless.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Lingo Animation Optimization Test

2004-05-14 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I have been performing some optimization tests for lingo 
 driven animations. The results may be downloaded here:
 
http://www.lifelinestudios.com/animation_optimization_test.dir

 Any thoughts or input?

It's what I would have expected. If you use the member name, Lingo has
to parse the string and find the member every time. You eliminate that
step by using the reference or number.

Updatestage is a huge timewaster if it's not needed (and it usually
isn't--one dependable sign of a beginning programmer is liberal use of
updatestage).

I can't comment on setting the sprite's member out of context. I'd have
to see the rest of the code. In fact, if you posted the code, I bet
you'd get a whole bunch more optimizations. Colin would probably reduce
the whole thing to one line that would run 437 times faster than anybody
else's.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Lingo Animation Optimization Test

2004-05-14 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I am looking forward to seeing how this could be reduced to one line
of code. ;-)

I'll leave that up to Colin. He's the one-line champion.

Your code is very clean, and you obviously know what you're doing. As to
assigning the member to the sprite, I don't see how you could do that
more efficiently if you're creating animations on the fly. If you're
using film loops, I've got a nifty little script that will tell you when
the film loop is done:

property pLoopSpriteNum
property pMyOwner
property pMyCallback
property pSkipAnim

on new me, loopSprite, myOwner, myCallBack
  pLoopSpriteNum = loopSprite
  pMyOwner = myOwner
  pMyCallBack = myCallBack
  pSkipAnim = FALSE
  add the actorList, me
  return me
end

on stepFrame me
  tell sprite(pLoopSpriteNum)
atEndOfLoop = (the frame = the lastFrame)
  end tell
  
  if atEndOfLoop  or pSkipAnim then
call (pMyCallBack, pMyOwner)
  end if
end

on mouseUp me
  pSkipAnim = TRUE
end

I notice you don't have any handlers for frame events in your object. A
timeout object sends frame events--I'm not sure which ones, off the top
of my head, but if you put prepareFrame, enterFrame, and exitFrame
handlers in your object, it will speed things up.

Somebody help me here--it's been a while since I've used timeOut objects
for animations. How exactly do you handle frame events to keep them from
bogging down the timeOut?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Lingo Animation Optimization Test

2004-05-14 Thread Kerry Thompson
 How would this speed things up?

I think it will speed things up if you have something like this:

on exitFrame
  nothing
end

Otherwise the next exitFrame handler--e.g., in your frame script--gets
called. If you have a timeout that's running significantly faster than
your frame rate, it keeps it from doing a lot of extra processing.

It's been discussed a fair amount in the past--enough that I know it's
an issue, but I'm afraid I wasn't paying close enough attention.
Somebody else should give you the skinny--Buzz? Jakob?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Language and DoubeByte Language

2004-05-13 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Entry and display.

CCJK Text entry means the user _must_ have the appropriate language
system, either native or add-in like Twin Bridge.

Literate Chinese means knowing about 4,000 characters--you need about
3,000 just to read newspaper, and a scholar will know 8,000-10,000.
Japanese requires about 2,000 Chinese characters (Kanji), plus hiragana,
katakana, and romaji.

With that many characters, there is no Chinese keyboard. Rather, CCJK
use an Input Method Editor, or IME, which allows the user to enter a
character with a few keystrokes. In Chinese alone, there are a
half-dozen commonly-used schemes for entering characters, and the IME
must support them.

So, it's impractical to write a routine in Director to allow the user to
enter multibyte characters (Chinese , Chinese , Japanese, Korean). If
you had the language knowledge, you could maybe write your own IME in a
year or two, probably as an xtra.

In short, input on a system that doesn't support it is a Very Very Big
Job. That probably means that you will need to test on the native
language systems, plus systems with the add-in.

 Not sharing.  But will need to interact with the user and the 
 user's computer.

How will the data need to interact with the user? Is it a matter of
displaying info they have typed in, like name? That should be pretty
straightforward. If you're trying to parse data, though look out. That's
a real tough assignment.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Language and DoubeByte Language

2004-05-13 Thread Kerry Thompson
 The product has some character entry...file names, order 
 stuff, etc.  And 
 there's also some character parsing like Using % to wash 
 your clothes is 
 . where they intend to have strings translated into 
 multiple languages 
 and hopefully still do some parse-replacing of characters.

The character entry will still need the native-language system, unless
you are restricting entry to few enough characters that they can choose
from an on-screen palette.

I don't see that type of parsing as a problem. I assume you will be
saving possible answers as separate entities, so you won't have to parse
the Chinese, Japanese, or Korean text.

I don't know if you saw my original response a week ago, so forgive me
if I repeat myself.

I'm not so familiar with Korean, but Chinese and Japanese have no
natural word breaks like most Western languages do, and that makes
parsing a real challenge. There are several issues:
- They may or may not use spaces. If they do, spaces will not
necessarily indicate a word break.
- There is no set sort order for Chinese/Kanji characters that
corresponds with our alphabetic ordering. There are a few commonly-used
ordering schemes, but nothing universally-agreed upon.
- Words can break across lines without hyphens.
- There is no way, other than context, to know if a character is a
self-standing word, or part of a multi-character word. For example,
you in Chinese (pronounced yo, like Sylvester Stallone would). It
can be used by itself, it can be the first character in a word (you-yi,
friendship), or it can be the last character in a word (peng-you,
friend). Likewise, the yi in you-yi and the peng in peng-you can
appear in different contexts.
- Japanese freely mixes kanji, katakana, hiragana, and romaji.
- Chinese is usually read from left to right, but can be right to left,
or top to bottom.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Parsing CCJK is several
orders of magnitude more difficult than alphabetic languages. If you're
going to have to parse unknown input, you will need to set aside a huge
chunk of time and money to develop your parsing routines. And, they will
be different for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l flash/director

2004-05-11 Thread Kerry Thompson
 i have this project that mix 2 flash swf files integrated in 
 a director 
 enviorment.
 one of the problems that arose was that i need one flash swf 
 inside the 
 projector to command the other swf file to execute some 
 task do any 
 body knows how could it be solved this clue
 thanks from advanced.

I think you'll need to go through Director, like two kids who aren't
speaking to each other. Daddy, tell Flashy to go to frame 500.

Flash uses getURL:Lingo to send commands to Director. Director has a
wide variety of ways of communicating with Flash--check the online help.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Sorting lists properly

2004-05-11 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I've been playing around with the sort function for my
 property lists in order to have a sorted list that I
 can add properties to at any time in any order and
 have it sort it correctly.  The problem I'm having is
 that when you add numbers like 1, 17 and 129 it only
 sorts them up to the 2nd character so 129 comes before
 17 in the list.  Also some of these numbers are
 followed by a letter such as 15a, 15b, 15c, etc and
 these are entered in any order as well.

Director will sort the list the way you want as long as you add numbers.
It looks like you're adding strings as properties, though, so Director
is sorting them (correctly, but not the way you want) by ASCII value.

You can't use value() when you're adding properties, because that will
return void for 15a, and that would really upset Howdy-tzi.

Is there any way you can use numbers for your properties? Can you use
decimals (15.1, 15.2, etc.) or charToNum() instead of letters? That
would work. In the message window:

pl=[1: a, 2: b, 12:c]
pl.sort()
put pl
-- [1: a, 2: b, 12: c]

pl.addProp(1.5, d)
put pl
-- [1: a, 1.5000: d, 2: b, 12: c]

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Sorting lists properly

2004-05-11 Thread Kerry Thompson
 The problem is though is
 that it only takes the first two characters into
 consideration when it sorts it, so when I add numbers
 like 1, 17, 129, etc the 129 appears before the 17 in
 the list.

Yuck. So it does, even in a linear list, even with numbers and no alpha
characters.

The only thing I can think of is to use your own sort routine and add
the list items at specified points in an unsorted list.

Is there an xtra that will do this better? Preg maybe?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Sorting lists properly

2004-05-11 Thread Kerry Thompson
 How do you get it to go wrong? Here's what I get:
 
 t = [1,17,129]
 put t
 -- [1, 17, 129]
 sort t
 put t
 -- [1, 17, 129]
 
 t = [129,1,17]
 put t
 -- [129, 1, 17]
 sort t
 put t
 -- [1, 17, 129]

Hmm... so it is. I could have sworn I got it to misbehave an hour ago,
but it's doing it right now. I'm going to have to go back and figure out
how I got it to break. Jim was seeing the same thing. Was it mass
hysteria?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l Dynamic Flash Sprite

2004-05-03 Thread Kerry Thompson
I think I'm missing something obvious here. Dir MX, Win XP Pro.

I'm creating a Flash sprite at runtime, but it's crashing with handler
not found in object when I issue a goToFrame command.

The code is pretty straightforward:
pAnimSprite.rect= member(animMemberName).rect
pAnimSprite.member = member(animMemberName)
pAnimSprite.loc = animLoc
pAnimSprite.goToFrame(frameLabelName)

Everything checks out in the debugger. The right sprite is getting
loaded, it's going in the right place, and the right frame label is
being called. pAnimSprite is a 0-pixel holder before getting assigned.
The Flash cast member is #lockStep (there's a callback), #static, #Loop
and #DTS are false.

I've tested it in a movie with the Flash sprite on stage, rather than
being dynamically assigned, and everything works as I would expect.

Ideas on what else I need to do to kick it into gear?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Dynamic Flash Sprite

2004-05-03 Thread Kerry Thompson
 It's a silly thing, but are you sure that you're passing 
 strings to flash?

Yep. I can see it in the debugger. Actually, the cast member name and
the frame are the same [string] variable in my code. I changed them in
the code I posted to avoid confusion.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Black flashes in MX2004

2004-05-03 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Hi!
 I have just translated a large project from MX into MX2004.
 It has a number of dirs which go from one to the other, and 
 casts which are 
 shared. The casts are being switched depending on what 
 language is being used.
 
 It works well in authoring, but in the projector, there is a 
 lengthy black 
 flash between some of the dirs.

I've seen this some times when there is a blank frame at the end or
beginning of a movie, or you are manipulating a lot of assets in a
prepareMovie or beginSprite handler.

Do you have a bitmap that you can be sure is on stage when you call go
to movie, and is on stage in the first frame of the next movie?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Unwanted highlight

2004-04-28 Thread Kerry Thompson

 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.

Yes, there's a print dialog or a save dialog displayed.

Hmmm... At least I'm not alone. Thanks.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Unwanted highlight

2004-04-28 Thread Kerry Thompson
 This is what i use to get rid of unwanted hilites. I've only 
 encountered this problem when switching between applications, 
 so your mileage may vary
 :)
 
 on activateApplication
   the stagecolor = the stagecolor
 end

Thanks, Marvin. I'll give it a try.

A couple of people have suggested it happens when a dialog box is up,
which seems to be the case for me.

Before the print or save dialog box, the selelction = [9, 9]. Afterwards
it's [0, 9]. I've tried setting the selection back to [0, 0] after
issuing the print or save command, but the selection seems to be getting
set when the print or save is done.

That makes me wonder: is there any way I can tell when the print job is
done? I could use a timeOut object to reset the selection after a second
or so, but if there was a callback, or a property I could check, it
would be great.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l Unwanted highlight

2004-04-27 Thread Kerry Thompson
This is a bit strange. When I get data from a field, it highlights the
text. Dir MX, Win XP Pro, Mac 10.3.

I'm getting it either to print or to save. Either way, I'm calling this
handler:

on mGetPrintOutput me
  printData = member(InstructionsTextMember).text  return  return 
pEditableTextMember.text
  return printData
end

pEditableTextMember is a text member. Before I print or save, the
selection is equal the length. That is, if the text is 9 characters
long, the selection is [9,9]. After I print, the selection is [0,9].

I swear, I'm not setting the selection anywhere. No, I take that back--I
added a method to set the selection to [0, 0] after I print or save. No
dice. The text is still highlighted on the screen.

Has anybody run into this? Any idea what's happening?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l Borderless MIAWs

2004-04-26 Thread Kerry Thompson
I'm sure this has been covered before, but is there a way to get a
borderless MIAW?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Borderless MIAWs

2004-04-26 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Use a 1-bit bitmap for the windowType? Or one of the 
 border-removing xtras? 
 Which version of Director?

MX (not 2004). Xplat.

Do you do it with something like window(x).windowType = bitmap name?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Time to load movies

2004-04-25 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I have 3 movie clips that are 20-30MB in size. These 
 movies come up on a mouseclick. However, after burning the 
 project on a CD, the projector is having a hard time playing 
 back the clips directly from the CD. When the whole folder is 
 copied to the desktop, the projector plays the movies fine. 
 If played from the CD, the projector asks to locate the movie clips.
 
 My question is -- is there a way that I can make the CD play 
 back the movies from the CD without having the user copy the 
 folder on to the desktop? Compressing the videoclips further 
 is not an option.

I assume your projector is on the hard drive. You probably have a
director structure something like this:

 myMovie.dir/videos/palooka.mov

When you run the projector off the hard drive, it's going to expect the
video to be in the same relative directory.

To play it off the CD, you need to use code to set the file name of the
video cast member to the directory on the CD.

Now, you used a couple of terms that could be confusing--movie clip,
movie, and video clip. In the Director world, we usually call the
Director files the movie, and refer to digital video as video. I think
that's what you meant.

Another possible problem is that you're trying to play two or three
videos at a time off the CD. That won't work, because the CD seek time
is much, much longer than the hard disk. If you're trying to play two
videos off the CD, your CD will spend more time jumping back and forth
than actually reading the video data.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Video clip loading

2004-04-25 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Thanks for the response. My video clips are in the cast 
 member of my Director movie and they do not come up at the 
 same time. Playing from the hard drive is not a problem. But 
 when I have burned the projector and all its associated files 
 on a CD, the videoclips do not play automatically -- it asks 
 where is movieclip moviename.mov? Once identified or 
 copied on to the harddrive the projector plays fine.
 
 I was wondering if anyone has a suggestion about how I could 
 play the videoclips from the CD without having to copy my 
 Project Folder (which has the projector and all associated 
 files) on to the hard drive.

Once again, you have to set the path correctly. It is looking for the
videos on your hard drive.

Is it QuickTime? QuickTime cast members are _always_ linked. You don't
have the video in the cast member--all you have is the reference, and
that reference is relative to your projector.

Set the path to point to the CD and you will be fine.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l KeyDown, mouseDown question

2004-04-23 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I'm having a problem getting a keyDown, mouseDown combination 
 to work.  I would like something along these lines:
 
 on mouseDown
 if (_key.key = z) is down then
 (do this)
 else
 (do that)
 end else
 end if
 end

There's an easy way:

 on mouseDown me
if keyPressed(0) then
  -- knock yourself out
end if
 end

If you want to get a little fancier, you could do something like this
(untested e-mail Lingo). This would be a frame script behavior.

property pKeyDown

 on new me --could use beginSprite
   pKeyDown = FALSE
 end

 on keyDown me
   pKeyDown = TRUE
 end

 on keyUp me
pKeyDown = FALSE
 end

 on mGetKeyStatus
return pKeyDown
 end

---

Then this script attached to the sprite:

 on mouseDown me
   bKeyIsDown = sendSprite(0, #mGetKeyStatus)
   if bKeyIsDown then
 -- the key will give you the last key pressed
  -- knock yourself out
   end if
 end

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Scrolling

2004-04-23 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Creating the keyboard as a MIAW a possibility?

That would work, too. I think I'm going to use the OSControl Xtra,
though.

I love the OSControl Xtra--it's in my top 5 can't do without list. I
wasn't quite sure how to attach an OSControl Xtra with code yesterday.

My movie is almost entirely code-based. You know the type--holder
sprites assigned members and scripts at runtime, activity manager
objects created on the fly.

A couple of e-mail exchanges with James Newton confirmed that I can
attach them on the fly, so it becomes easy. (James Newton's company,
OpenSpark, is purveyor of the OSControl Xtra. www.openspark.com).

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l KeyDown, mouseDown question

2004-04-23 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Try:
 
 on mouseDown
   if the key = z then
 put Z Down with a click

Steve will probably dance windershins for you, too ^_^

Just a note, though. The key doesn't indicate if the key is currently
down--it gives you the ANSI code of the last key pressed. If Steve is
looking for simultaneous key presses and mouse downs, I think
keyPressed(0) is the function to call.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l KeyDown, mouseDown question

2004-04-23 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Does that still qualify for winder shins?

That's up to Steve. Maybe widdershins?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l Scroll bar issues

2004-04-22 Thread Kerry Thompson
I'm working on a Spanish-language project. To enter accented characters
from an English system, we have a pop-up keyboard the user can click.

The keyboard is just a sprite, and the user can drag it around the
screen. Some of the screens have text with scroll bars.

When the user drags the keyboard over the scroll bar, it slides under
the scroll bar. I imagine it's because the scroll bar, being a system
scroll bar, is dts, and no matter what the zLoc of the keyboard, it will
always appear under the scroll bar.

Ideas on how to get around this?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Scroll bar issues

2004-04-22 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Custom scroll bar.

Ugh. Not really an option. Too much code, too little time. Any other
way?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Scrolling

2004-04-22 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Not sure how well this would work, but one cheesy solution 
 could be to set the 'boxType' property to #fixed while that 
 particular sprite is overlapping the text member and then set 
 it back to #scroll once it moves away.

I thought of that, but I don't think the scroll bar goes away unless you
do a media=media thing.

I don't think the client would go for the look, anyway. The scroll bar
disappearing and reappearing would be kind of weird.

Good idea, though.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Scroll bar issues

2004-04-22 Thread Kerry Thompson
 OK, now I'm curious.  I haven't seen any response, good or 
 bad, to my suggestion of the OSControls Xtra scroll bar 
 widget.  What does everyone have against it?

Nothing. Actually, I think it's a good idea. It might be a fair amount
of work in my project, so I don't know if it's the approach I will use,
but it's a good one. 

I own and use OSControl, and I like it a lot. It's just that we're in
beta, and it's a bit late to be making that drastic of a change. This
affects ten or fifteen different activities, so it would be a lot of
rewrite and testing.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Scroll bar issues

2004-04-22 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Well, there are the pre-made custom scrollbar behaviors that 
 come with Director. If you don't want to use them, I have 
 some pretty decent ones I made myself that require no 
 customization to be able to drop on and use easily.

Thanks, Charles. I know about the behaviors, and I have some of my own.

The problem is time. There are a dozen or so objects that are affected.
If I can find a quicker way than recoding a dozen activities, I'll use
it. If not, I'll either bite the bullet, or the client will have to make
a choice--accept the quirk or delay the release.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Scrolling

2004-04-22 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Since its a kludge anyways, you could throw up a sprite with an image 
 of scroll bars when  you turn the system scroll bars off.

That kind of goes along with the idea of grabbing the image of the text.
It's not a bad idea, actually. Whenever you start dragging the sprite,
just send a message to the activity manager object. Grab the image, put
it in a sprite, move the text sprite offstage and replace it with the
image.

Some good suggestions. Thanks, folks. I'll come up with a solution,
probably one that combines a couple of suggestions. 

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l How to make Windows-style controls?

2004-04-20 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I am interested in making a program in Director that looks 
 and feels like a normal Windows program, i.e., where the 
 buttons look like typical Windows buttons for whatever 
 version of Windows the user has (98/ME/2000/XP), and forms, 
 combo boxes, drop down lists, checkboxes, radio buttons, etc. 
 all look like nornal controls for that version of Windows.
 
 Does anyone have any suggestions for this?  Is there an xtra 
 out there that does this?

I use the OSControl Xtra. Without doubt, it's the best for that task.
It's easy to use, well-documented, and has plenty of sample code.
www.openspark.com.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l SIL again

2004-04-18 Thread Kerry Thompson
 t = script(MoveObject_Behavior).new()
 sprite(1).scriptInstanceList.add(t)
 
 and get a script error: Property not found.

Try this:

Sprite(1).scriptInstanceList.add(script(MoveObject_Behavior).new())

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l Flash discussion group

2004-04-13 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Anyone know any good flash discussion group sites

I like Flash Newbie. To subscribe to the list, send a message to:
   [EMAIL PROTECTED]

FlashCoders is good too, but it's real high traffic. If you're already a
wizard, go to FlashCoders. If you're merely advanced or intermediate, go
to Flash Newbie.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l FileIO Xtra trouble

2004-04-02 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Now I found out that this function always returns true if a 
 file with the same filename as the filename in parameter fn 
 (which is a full path) exists in the moviepath, i.e. if fn 
 doesn't exist, but a file with the same name exists in the 
 same folder as the *.dir, fileIO takes this one instead for 
 openFile, writeString etc. (dir mx, win xp pro). Does anyone 
 know a way to make fileIO stop behaving like that?

I'm not sure, but is there any reason you don't want to use Buddy or
FileXtra4? Both of them have fileExists functions.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l FileIO Xtra trouble

2004-04-02 Thread Kerry Thompson
 As I've said, this function is only meant for cases where 
 those xtras are not available. One possible reason is to keep 
 my downloadable shockwave-projectors as small as possible.

I see. I haven't been following the thread.

I don't think fileIO is ShockWave safe, though, is it? For that matter,
I don't think FileXtra4 is either. You probably know this, but it's
worth mentioning--FileXtra4 is free, and it's only a 120 KB download (if
it's ShockWave safe).

Or are you talking about self-standing projectors, not browser-based
movies? That does change things a bit, though I still don't know how to
make fileIO behave. I only use it when I absolutely have to--it's so
old, clunky, and out-of-date.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l Framing text

2004-04-01 Thread Kerry Thompson
Is there a property of a text field that I can set to have a 1-pixel
frame drawn around it? Or should I just do it with a shape?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l FileIO Xtra File Path Limit

2004-03-31 Thread Kerry Thompson
 Has anyone ever come accross a limit to the number of 
 characters in a file path that can be used in the file IO 
 Xtra to open a file? The limit for the path seems to be 126 
 characters. After that the file can be found.

You'd think that Macromedia would update it, but that seems to still be
the limit.

I use Buddy API to get the short file name. I think the call is
baShortFileName(myRidiculouslyLongPath). Works for me.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


RE: lingo-l multiple movies

2004-03-30 Thread Kerry Thompson
 I'd like to have multiple movies and one main movie which 
 randomly select the other movies.
 
 I've tried to do this by using the play and play done 
 commands, but I get several strange problems.

I never use play and play done. Use go to movie. You're probably running
into stack problems which you can totally avoid with go to movie.

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


lingo-l PrintOMatic and Panther

2004-03-30 Thread Kerry Thompson
I can't get PrintOMatic to register in Dir MX on Panther.

Is there a trick? I'm using the latest beta, 1.6.5. An earlier version,
1.6.2, was working under Jaguar back in November.

It's failing when I try to register it--Director says the Xtra wasn't
found. It shows up in the xtraList, though.

I'm registering with register(xtra PrintOMatic, 666BillGates666)
(not the real serial number).

Anybody run into this? Know a fix?

Cordially,

Kerry Thompson


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to 
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]  (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping 
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]


  1   2   3   4   5   6   >