Hi --

I agree with all of Ned's suggestions. There are two rather different 
paths here. One is to try to make a piece of interactive media using 
various morphs that are already in existence. The other way is to 
come up with a conception of the medium and genre in which you want 
to embed your stories and make both. We have done quite of a bit of 
the latter, but I still think it is a good way to go, since this area 
needs lots more new and better ideas. I think it is fair to say than 
anything that you conceive of can be created in Squeak with more or 
less effort. To me, coming up with a good genre is a main task.

The Squeak News stuff of Tansel Ersavas that Ned mentioned is one of 
the best (perhaps the best) example of someone with an expository 
idea in mind who just shaped existing and created new media to get a 
cohesive genre in which he could exhibit lots of the ideas he wanted 
to transmit. Anyone tryihg to do "new media" should look at this for 
ideas. Tansel's use of the GeeMailMorph is particularly nice. Ned 
didn't mention, but Bob Arning (who did the GeeMailMorph) extended 
the kinds of things you can do with sensitized text. There might be 
some documentation around that covers this .....

Also, an old but still interesting version of an "active-essay" is 
the one called "the evolution essay" or "weasel" mostly done by Ted 
Kaehler. This uses books embedded in books and is quite successful in 
carrying forth a narrative that has interactive things for the user 
to do.

I've found that I can do a wide range of interactive media very 
easily without having to leave the etoy system (much or at all). This 
is worth investigating (and we like to hear new good ideas about what 
should be put in to make things better here).

Cheers,

Alan



At 11:40 AM -0700 7/20/03, Ned Konz wrote:
>On Sunday 20 July 2003 10:04 am, Jeff Longland wrote:
>
>>  I'm working on an "interactive story" of sorts.  I'd like to create
>>  a field of text where my story will go.  I'd like to have links
>>  within the text that open a new window to a glossary or other
>>  interactive activities, maybe movie clips?  As this is my first
>>  real attempt outside the eToys system, I'm not too sure where to
>>  start.  I've played with the BookMorph a little bit, but I'm not
>>  sure if it meets my needs.
>
>I'm sure that Alan will have some good suggestions here. He has been
>driving the "Active Essays" development in Squeak. Have you looked
>that the Squeakland web site?
>
>>    My problem at this point in time is
>>  that I'm a little overwhelmed by everything - and I'm not quite
>>  sure where I should start.  How should I create the text with links
>>  - are there any existing morphs that would do the job?
>
>There is the BookMorph, the GeeMailMorph, the StackMorph, the
>Storyboard, and maybe some others I forget right now.
>
>The GeeMailMorph is a long scrolling galley that can be set up with
>multiple columns: text in the left column and other Morphs in the
>right. When you put a Morph in a right column, it's anchored to the
>text so that when you re-flow the text, the anchor stays in place.
>
>The BookMorph and StackMorph are page-oriented; you can drop in
>different kinds of morphs (text and other).
>
>I don't know whether there is any easy way to trigger your embedded
>Morphs upon their becoming visible.
>
>Tansel Ersavas (in his wonderful e-zine Squeak News) came up with a
>modification of the GeeMailMorph that would trigger embedded morphs
>when they (or their page, I forget) became visible.
>
>I just posted a change set that will add this behavior to
>GeeMailMorph.
>
>>   How do I
>>  create a link to open a "new window" that will hold an interactive
>>  exercise?  I have an exercise in a seperate project file (eToys)
>>  that I'd like to open from a link in the story - what's the best
>>  way to do this?  I don't necessarily have to open the other project
>>  - I can always bring the objects into the story project, and use
>  > them from there.  It's just a matter of how...
>
>You can quickly get a project link that you can embed in a book or
>GeeMail. Go to the Objects tool (cmd-o) and look at the "Navigation"
>category.
>
>Drag out a Project History morph. Now you can drag the little pictures
>of the projects into your book to make quick links.
>
>Also, any Morph can be a button. There are menu items and eToys hooks
>for this.
>
>--
>Ned Konz
>http://bike-nomad.com
>GPG key ID: BEEA7EFE


--