Interactive Story (Newbie Question)

Jeff Longland jlonglan at uwo.ca
Sun Jul 20 17:04:15 UTC 2003


My adventure in learning Squeak continues...  I've done a handful of
projects using the eToys system, and I've been doing a lot of reading
("Squeak - A Quick Trip to Objectland" and "Squeak - Open Personal Computing
and Multimedia").  I've been experimenting / playing with the
workspace/browser/transcript and I'm really beginning to see the appeal of
Squeak.  I'll have to admit that I even find myself doing more of my
day-to-day work within Squeak as well.  That said, I'm still having some
problems with getting my project to move in the direction I want.

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.  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?  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...

If anyone can offer suggestions on how to do this, I'd really appreciate
it - links to similar projects would also be much appreciated.  I've been
working through the Squeak books I mentioned above, and trying to create the
story project, but with minimal success to this point.  As well, I noticed
some discussion on the list earlier this week with regards to display
resolution.  What is the best way to deal with the differences in display
resolutions?  I'm developing in 1024x768, but I know that many of my users
will be running 800x600 if not 640x480.  Are there any rules of thumb for
usability in Squeak?

Ideas, comments, suggestions are always much appreciated...

Thank-you,
Jeff




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