nightwares mini logoA brief introduction to Director

3. Particular Elements of "Hello, World"

Defining a program's objectives is crucial to software development.

Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio: A Beginner's Guide

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1. The program should install a standard File menu and, on Mac, an Apple menu.


2. The program should confirm that the computer it is running on has enough color resolution to display it properly.

3. The program's window should be of a size that it will fit any display on which it is running.

4. The program should be predesigned to port across platforms transparently or with as little modification as possible.

In addition to standard menu items, the program should allow the user to use hot-keys and buttons to perform major functions (in this case, quit the program).

Now that we have a decent description of what our program should do, we're actually ready to go ahead and begin making it.

Note, by the way, that the abovementioned items would apply in a general way to pretty much any decent program.


1. Introduction

2. Definition of Objectives

3. Specific Objectives

4. Stage Size

5. Stage Location

6. Setting the Stage's Color

7. Beginning to Enter Script

8. A bit More About the StartMovie() Handler

9. Entering Another Handler

10. A Break-down of the CheckColor() Handler

11. A Quick Test

12. Adding Text to the Stage

13. Preparing to Enter a Frame Script

14. Entering the Frame Script

15. Adding a Quit Button

16. The Progress so Far

17. Preparing to Add a Menu

18. Discussion of Menu Requirements

19. Preparing the Menu Storage Member

20. Entering Menu Functions for Macintosh

21. Entering Menu Functions for Windows

22. Efficientlly Handling Multiple Menus

23. Preparing to Insert the Menus Onscreen

24. Adding the Menu Installation Handler

25. Discussion of the Menu Installation Handler

26. Adding Code for an About Box

27. Review of the Scripts

28. Creating a Projector and Running it