Various questions

[rand valentine]

  Hi, all. I really appreciate everyone's contributions to this list,
both those taking time to pose questions and of course those who provide
answers. I've been a HyperCard user since it was first introduced, and
have used it extensively for various linguistic-related projects. I
wrote my phd dissertation using HyperCard to organize data (a dialect
study of the North American aboriginal language Ojibwe). I am presently
teaching at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) in American Indian
Studies, seeking to help preserve the Ojibwe language (most aboriginal
languages in the world will die out in the next two generations due to
pressures of globalization). Most of my Revolution work will involve
producing stacks to help language learners. I use Mac OS9, X.1.2, and
Windows 2000. I built my first runrev language stack today, and have a
couple of questions for the group:

1. If you use a "player" and external sounds, is there any way to
relativize the path to the sounds? For example, I have cards that have
Ojibwe written on them, and when the user clicks on a button, my
pronunciation of the Ojibwe is heard-- via a player that finds an audio
(wav) file. But how do I generalize the paths in the players so that a
downloaded copy of the runrev stack with associated audiofiles will be
able to find the audio files without the user's having to know how to
link files? Could you use the "default folder" to good effect in this
case? Help!

2. How necessary is it to have external audio files? What is the size
threshold in terms of final stack size? For example, if I have a set of
say 25 audio files that are each about 50K, will it really tax a typical
Windows or Mac system to have all of these audio files embedded in a
single RunRev file (ie, overload memory to load this stack)? What
guidelines can be given as to "size"? This would really help novice
users.

3. To the RunRev team: We need a stack repository, where people can
upload stacks to give others ideas about developing their own materials.
This will only help Revolution thrive as a commercial product. The docs
for runrev are a great start, but they are still very limited. Stack
examples will help people with particular interests to see
implementations of projects of the sort that they themselves are
undertaking. It's funny-- runrev produces in me the same kind of
loyalty/devotion that the mac does- something about aesthetics and the
quality of life. I _love_ this program. It will help Ojibwe to survive.

Okay, enough for now. Thanks for your help, dear fellow programmers.

rand valentine
u of wisconsin-madison