Stacks delivered via the web?

[Ken Ray]

Judy,

> This is the point of my beef about "everybody" using Director.  Everybody
> doesn't because it's simply not a trivial learning curve.  "Everybody"
> I've conversed with has indicated that they don't use it except for
> courses such as I will be taking because the environment -- metaphor and
> scripting language -- is too complex for normal humans.

If it's any consolation, Director's scripting language (Lingo) is an xTalk
knock-off, so it should be pretty easy to learn. What is a bit more complex
is the timeline metaphor, which is very different than a card-based one. But
here's a couple of things that might help (they may not make sense now until
you get started, but keep 'em handy and see if they help out when the time
comes):

1) The "score" is like a stack; it contains all the content.

2) A "frame" is like a card, in that you place one or more objects on a
frame and they are visible to the end user and can interact with them.

3) Objects are placed in the score, and can (and usually do) span multiple
frames. This allows you to simulate sort of a "shared background" in
Director.

4) The "playback head" starts at frame 1 and continues going frame by frame
until it is told explicitly to stop by code. Technically the playback head
never stops, it just ends up "looping" on the frame you tell it to and this
simulates a stopping of the playback head (This is done by telling it to "go
to the frame".)

5) Objects are visible to the user so long as they exist in the frame where
the playback head is, and will disappear if the playback head exits their
frame and their span isn't long enough (i.e. if you have a graphic in frames
1 to 5 and in frame 10 a "go to the frame", when you play it you will see
the graphic on screen as the playback head goes from frame 1 to 5, it will
disappear when it gets to frame 6, and will remain gone to the user becaus
the playback head will hit frame 10 and loop there).

6) Now that you have read #2 above, keep in mind that a frame is *like* a
card; in many Director apps it is a *span of frames* that are more like a
card. For example, suppose you want to simulate "going to a card", having an
object move across the screen and then stop, and then when you click on it
you "go to the next card". If the first frame of the "card" is frame 10, the
animation plays from frames 10 to 30, and the "go to the frame" is in frame
30, technically all 20 frames constitute "the card".

OK, I hope that's enough to help you get started... if you have any
questions while you're taking the class, feel free to email me off-list.

Ken Ray
Sons of Thunder Software
Email: kray at sonsothunder.com
Web Site: http://www.sonsothunder.com/