running the Player

[Dan Shafer]

Yeah, as I've said here before, the Player just isn't well documented  
or understood.

It *appears* to me that it is RunRev's intent that the Player should  
*never* be launched directly, but only indirectly by double-clicking  
on a stack. The problem, of course, is that you can't prevent users  
from launching it.

I think it should either:

(1) Display message that says, in essence, "This is a Player. You got  
to give it something to play with. Pick a stack file, double-click it  
and then see how great it is"

Or

(2) Present with a file selection dialog (filtered for stacks if  
possible).

But that's just me.


On Aug 13, 2005, at 7:46 PM, Charles Hartman wrote:

>
> On Aug 13, 2005, at 9:03 PM, Richard Gaskin wrote:
>
>
>> Charles Hartman wrote:
>>
>>
>>> When I launch the (OSX) Dreamcard Player by double-clicking the  
>>> app  (not a stack), I'm getting *nothing* -- just a splash /  
>>> starup screen  with "Preparing..." and "Checking license..." and  
>>> a big right-facing  arrow. The arrow isn't clickable; nothing is;  
>>> and the menu offers  nothing useful except Quit.
>>> Clearly *not* what I want to instruct my Dreamcard-stack users to  
>>> do.  But if the app is there (if they've downloaded both my stack  
>>> and the  Player), some will do it anyway.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Agreed, it doesn't provide much guidance.
>>
>>
> As far as I can see (??), less than that: it doesn't look as though  
> it permits any action but quitting. (Not a useful application  
> model . . .) I'm sure I'm missing something. But -- appearances  
> sometimes to the contrary, I'm not a really naive computer user --  
> and if I can't find it, I *know* many of the people using my stack  
> won't be able to either.
>
>
>
>> What do you feel would make for a better user experience?
>>
>> For example, should it present a file selection dialog, or have  
>> some sort of Home stack, or....?
>>
>>
>
> The former seems like the best idea; users are accustomed to those  
> dialogs in all kinds of apps. The latter could be good. But there  
> would have to be a really direct way for me, as developer, to make  
> my stack available either as or from that "home stack".
>
> Charles
>
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan Shafer, Revolution Consultant and Author
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