
TECHNICAL NOTES.

Technical Note 1.  Networking 
Technical Note 2.  Running MPEG and QuickTime video files
Technical Note 3.  Colours
Technical Note 4.  Reserved words
Technical Note 5.  Adding projects from different computers
Technical Note 6.  Creating CD-Rom setup
Technical Note 7.  Animated GIF
Technical Note 8.  Running other programs from Platypus
Technical Note 9.  Technical Support
Technical Note 10. IShare
Technical Note 11. Using the Internet browser


1. Networking
----------------------------------------------------
If you are installing on a network, follow the steps below:

1. Place the Platypus CD into the networked CD drive, OR CD stacker, OR copy the Setup folder from the Platypus CD into the ROOT directory of a networked hard disk.

2. Run setup on all the client machines. This will install runtime files only, and users will need access to  the network drive to run 300 MB of tutorial files.

3. Map the network drive to a local drive letter (G: or K: for example, but not \\MyNetwork). 

You can save your work anywhere on the network, but the local machine will always maintain a list of your project files. The only exception is 'Make' command, which always creates the distribution ("Traveller") version of your work in the c:\Platypus\Setup folder on your local machine. This takes just a small amount of space, as using 'Make' again replaces the previous installation.


2. Running MPEG and QuickTime video files
----------------------------------------------------
Platypus can currently run MPEG and QuickTime video files only through Active Movie and QuickTime drivers. If the drivers cannot be found on your machine you need to install them from the Setup folder on your CD. 
You might need to reboot the machine for the changes to take effect, as file extensions (MPEG, MPG, MOV) have to be registered.

In some cases Active Movie driver may paint a black frame around the animation. To avoid this problem you need to specify the animation size explicitly, for example:

<ANIMATION>
	NAME = "MyAnim"
	SRC = "MyAnim.mpg"
	POS = 10, 10
	SIZE = 300, 400
</ANIMATION>


3. Colours
----------------------------------------------------
Colours can be specified either by name or by RGB (Red-Green-Blue) values. There are 16 predefined colours and they must be entered in lower case:
black		RGB(  0,   0,   0)
white		RGB(255, 255, 255)
red		RGB(255,   0,   0)
green		RGB(  0, 255,   0)
blue		RGB(  0,   0, 255)
purple		RGB(255,   0, 255)
yellow		RGB(255, 255,   0)
cyan		RGB(  0, 255, 255)
grey		RGB(192, 192, 192)
darkred		RGB(128,   0,   0)
darkgreen	RGB(  0, 128,   0)
darkblue	RGB(  0,   0, 128)
darkpurple	RGB(128,   0, 128)
darkyellow	RGB(128, 128,   0)
darkcyan	RGB(  0, 128, 128)
darkgrey	RGB(128, 128, 128) 

Examples:
// Create a grey frame
<FRAME NAME ="base" SIZE = 640,480 COLOUR = grey>

// Create soft green frame
<FRAME NAME ="base" SIZE = 640,480 COLOUR = 120,200,130>


4. Reserved words
----------------------------------------------------
Reserved words cannot be used to name the objects. Below is the alphabetical listing of all the reserved words:

ACTION
ACTIVE
ANIM
ANIMATION
AUTHOR
AUTO
BACKGROUND
BUTTON
CANCEL
CLICK
CLICKSOUND
COLOR
COLOUR
COMMAND
COMMENT
CONTINUE
DELAY
DO
DOANIM
DOIMAGE
DOPAGE
DOPROGRAM
DOSCENE
DOSOUND
EFFECT
END
FALSE
FASTBLINDHORIZONTAL
FASTBLINDVERTICAL
FASTDISSOLVE
FASTIRISCLOSE
FASTIRISOPEN
FASTSLIDEDOWN
FASTSLIDELEFT
FASTSLIDERIGHT
FASTSLIDEUP
FASTWIPEDOWN
FASTWIPELEFT
FASTWIPERIGHT
FASTWIPEUP
FILE
FRAME
HALT
IDENTIFICATION
IGNORE
IMAGE
KILL
KILLANIM
KILLBUTTON
KILLFRAME
KILLIMAGE
KILLSOUND
LEARN
LOOP
MEDIA
NAME
NO
NONE
OFF
OK
ON
OVAL
OVALAGAIN
OVALBACK
OVALBULLET
OVALEXIT
OVALNEXT
OVALQUIT
OVALRETURN
PAGE
PARAMETER
PAUSE
POS
POSITION
PRELOAD
PROGRAM
REMOVE
RETURN
REWIND
ROLL
ROLLOVER
ROUND
ROUNDAGAIN
ROUNDBACK
ROUNDBULLET
ROUNDEXIT
ROUNDNEXT
ROUNDQUIT
ROUNDRETURN
RUN
SCALE
SCENE
SET
SIZE
SLOWBLINDHORIZONTAL
SLOWBLINDVERTICAL
SLOWDISSOLVE
SLOWEFFECT
SLOWIRISCLOSE
SLOWIRISOPEN
SLOWSLIDEDOWN
SLOWSLIDELEFT
SLOWSLIDERIGHT
SLOWSLIDEUP
SLOWWIPEDOWN
SLOWWIPELEFT
SLOWWIPERIGHT
SLOWWIPEUP
SOUND
SOURCE
SQUARAGAIN
SQUARE
SQUAREBACK
SQUAREBULLET
SQUAREEXIT
SQUARENEXT
SQUAREQUIT
SQUARERETURN
SRC
STATE
STAY
SYNC
TEXT
TEXTBOX
TEXTSTYLE
TIMING
TRANS
TRANSPARENT
TRUE
TYPE
VERSION
WAIT
YES


5. Adding projects from different computers
----------------------------------------------------
Platypus maintains a list of all the projects you have on your computer. If you create a Platypus project elsewhere, click the 'Add' button to place it in the list.


6. Creating CD-Rom setup
----------------------------------------------------
When a project is completed the 'Make' option will create a Traveller version of your work and put it into c:\Platypus\Setup directory. When placing your program on a CD, you need to copy the c:\Platypus\Setup directory with its subdirectories to the root directory of the CD.
To see your program people can either run it from the CD directly, or run Setup to install it, then double click on your program's icon that Setup will create.

Please do not delete any files from c:\Platypus\Setup - each time you make a new multimedia program, Platypus will automatically remove all the unnecessary files. 



7. Animated GIF
----------------------------------------------------
Animated GIF-s are currently not directly supported, but single frame ones are. However, you can use animated GIF-s inside browser objects, for example:

<BROWSER NAME = "Browser1" POSITION = 10, 10 SIZe = 30, 30 SOURCE = "Animated.gif" SCROLL = off>
...
DoBrowser(Browser1)


8. Running other programs from Platypus
----------------------------------------------------
Platypus treats single '\' characters as escape sequence.
When you call other programs from Platypus and need to specify the full path e.g. "c:\Platypus\AviMaker.exe", you must double the '\' character, e.g. "c:\\Platypus\\AviMaker.exe". 
When you distribute your application, paths on the destination machine might be different from your local computer. You can use the keyword $PATH, which denotes the path to the script file, to construct relative paths. 
If, for example, your script is in c:\Scripts, then:
$PATH\\Executables\\MyProg.exe  would expand to:
c:\Scripts\Executables\MyProg.exe


9. Technical Support
----------------------------------------------------
Only registered users can obtain technical support from RGMT and C Point.

10. IShare
----------------------------------------------------
If you have IShare installed, this could significantly slow down Platypus performance. If you encounter this problem, exit IShare before running your Platypus applications.


11. Using the Internet browser
----------------------------------------------------
The Internet browser object requires that you have Internet Explorer 4 or later installed. 
Should you require it, it is available in the Setup directory on your CD. You will have to be connected to the Internet to complete the installation.


RGMT Ron Green: Multimedia and Training
PO Box 155, Stepney 5069, Australia
Tel: +618 +8363 1515          Fax: +618 +8363 0349
Web: http://www.rgmt.com.au   Email: ron.green@rgmt.com.au

C Point Pty Ltd
71 Williamson Road, Para Hills 5096, Australia
Tel: +618 +8263 3623          Fax: +618 +8396 1477
Web: http://www.c-point.com   Email: c-point@c-point.com

