Demos and Tutorials using Journal

[Tim_Buxton at UM.CC.UMICH.EDU]

For anyone who has to do a "demo" of anything on an IRIS, there is 
now a really great tool for recording a whole demonstration once,
including all keystrokes and mouse movements at the speed you want, 
then playing it back any number of times, at selectable faster
or slower speeds.   It is called the "journal"
facility and just came out with 3.1g, I believe. "Journalrecord 
filename.jou" begins the recording, and "journalend" stops it. 
"Journalplay filename.jou" begins playback.  Or, "journalchest" can
show a panel with record, stop, and playback buttons to do all
of the preceeding.  If you aren't using this feature yet, I 
recommend trying it.  We plan to use it to distribute some
tutorials along with a new facetizer for BRL-CAD MGED files
called FRED.
 
  Now to mention a few problems I have found:
 
    1.  There are problems going from one machine (4D/70) to the
    other (4D/50).  The commands seem to get given before the machine
    is ready for them.  There is a speed adjustment - will this help,
    or is there a difference in the keyboard signals between machines?
    I notice that keyboard entry is stored not by ASCII code, but
    by keyboard code, twice per keystroke.  If a speed adjustment
    does not slow it down enough, would it make sense to multiply
    all the numbers in the first field, which seems to be an 
    "event time" field, by some factor to slow it down more?
 
    2. Stopping the journal playback can be done by pressing any
    key or moving the mouse yourself.  You are then totally out
    of the playback, however; it will not start up again from that
    point.  For new users watching a tutorial, the ability to stop, 
    then resume would be invaluable.  For giving presentations to
    groups (SGI salespersons are you listening?) it would be 
    very helpful to be able to stop to answer questions or make
    a point, then continue.  The SGI Hotline person I asked about
    this concluded after some thorough checking that "Pause" is
    not supported, although they might try to support it at a 
    later time.  Has anyone come up with a "Pause" feature on
    their own?
 
 
I would like to hear about possible solutions to the above
problems, as well as kinds of demos/tutorials/presentations that 
are being done by various users that could help all of us respond
the the perennial question "Could you show me what it can do?"
Thanks.
 
 
Tim Buxton
OptiMetrics, Inc.
Tim_Buxton at um.cc.umich.edu