[Etoys] progress in event-recording framework

[Scott Wallace]

Hi, Alan, and all,

Lots of progress to report on the event-recording framework in etoys/ 
olpc2.0;  here are some highlights:

(1)  Voiceover can now be added to an existing recording.  Hit the  
"Record Voiceover" button; the event sequence will be played back  
(minus any existing sound) and the recorder will record and attach  
your new audio content.  (As before, to record voice at the same time  
that you make the original event recording, set the "record voice"  
checkbox in the Options menu before recording.)

(2)  When you hit the "Publish", you're now offered three kinds of  
playback-triggering buttons.  In addition to the purely "button-like"  
thumbnail of the past, you can now obtain buttons that appear as  
scaled-down pictures of the recording.  In the "Hint" variant, a 0.3  
reduction of the initial scene is presented, overlaid with the word  
"HINT".  A click on one of these brings up, and automatically *plays*  
and then *dismisses*, the recorded sequence represented; at the end  
of playback, the playback-space shrinks back down to a 0.5 reduction  
of the *final* scene in the recording, all as per your suggestions  
for tutorial scenarios on 28 October.

(3)  The various playback-inducing buttons now all allow you (via  
their red-halo menus) to specify whether or not you want auto-start  
and/or auto-dismiss of the playback.

(4)  I finally solved the graphics-property-sheet-placement problem.   
It should now be possible to construct tutorials featuring use of  
property sheets, with much greater confidence that the property- 
sheets will appear in the same relative position on the replay.

(5)  If you try to dismiss an event-recording-framework which has  
been recorded but never published, you're now warned and given a  
chance to change your mind.

(6)  From a playback-inducing button, you can now "re-open" a full  
recording framework.  This allows re-recording of the sound track  
even if the original event-recording framework is gone.

Cheers,

  -- Scott



PS -- two small notes:

(a)  Sound recording within all variants of the EventRecorder is  
still broken on the Mac, pending VM fixes.  If you use a sufficiently  
old Mac VM, (i.e. before 3.8.6b4), voice recording on a Mac will work  
okay, but I'm not certain what other things might be adversely  
affected by using an old VM.  In any case, these issues afaik "only"  
affect use on the Mac.

(b)  "Old" event-framework recordings [i.e. those created before this  
week's improvements] cannot have after-the-fact voiceover added --  
sorry, but the hooks are lacking.