Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!ncar!ames!lll-tis!oodis01!uplherc!esunix!blgardne
From: blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Director Demos, etc.
Message-ID: <1119@esunix.UUCP>
Date: 29 Nov 88 15:17:34 GMT
References: <9029@gryphon.COM>
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation
Lines: 66

First off, a disclaimer: my site got NO news over the Thanksgiving
weekend, and it looks like it all went to the bit bucket, so I may be
rehashing something that's already been covered.

From article <9029@gryphon.COM>, by keithd@gryphon.COM (Keith Doyle):
> When the Probe Sequence was done 2 or so years ago (by me) it had never been
> made clear what the "correct" way of referencing needed files was.  It still
> hasn't been made all that clear, and the undocumented characteristics of the 
> Execute() command by programs run from icons muddies the water considerably.
> Something you can only find out with experience.

Understandable, but would it be much trouble for you to generate a new
script for Probe Sequence so it could be run from a hard drive? I at
least would appreciate it. (This viewpoint brought to you by someone who
was up until 1am this morning trying to fill an 80 meg hard drive with
neat demos for the University of Utah computer fair. It looks like it
should be a fun show, we've got a set of Klipsch speakers aimed right at
the NeXT table! :-)

> BTW, I've installed the vanilla Walker in a subdirectory on my hard disk
> with no problems, though I do have to do 3 assigns first (it was a 2 disk
> demo, and you have to tell it where the sound module is to be found).

I hope I didn't start any flames with my first posting, but I was trying
to figure out why Walker was crashing. I still have no idea why (maybe
it was already discussed), but I found out how to stop it. If I have
IconX execute a script that makes the 3 assigns, and runs the demo,
nasty things happen, including writes to the hard drive that corrupted
one or more of the data files.

On the other hand, if I have the following IconX script, everything is
fine.

newcli from walker.exec

Walker.exec is the same script that IconX was executing directly before.
From memory, the script is:

Assign wdemo1: ""
assign wdemo2: ""  ;or whatever the volume names are
assign ????:  ???  ;can't remember what the sound assign was
projector walker.film

(I should note that both disks were copied into the same subdir on my
hard drive, and both assigns are to the same directory.) 

I got the idea for the "newcli from walker.exec" IconX script from a
local dealer who noted that executing a script from the CLI worked fine.
Anyway, I've got it working now, and I hacked out an icon (from the
"loading demo" screen) if anyone wants it.

Two questions:
1) Was this problem cause by IconX, The Director, or the phase of the
   moon?

2) Sometimes when the Walker demo is exited (by clicking a mouse button)
   the sound channels are not given back to the system. Any fix for
   this?


	Thanks, Blaine.
-- 
Blaine Gardner @ Evans & Sutherland    580 Arapeen Drive, SLC, Utah 84108
Here: utah-cs!esunix!blgardne   {ucbvax,allegra,decvax}!decwrl!esunix!blgardne
There: uunet!iconsys!caeco!pedro!worsel!blaine (under construction)
"Nobody will ever need more than 64K."    "Nobody needs multitasking on a PC."