Them changes...


Every technical book has its share of necessary amendations, and the recent editions of Demystified are no exception. What follows is a list of clarifications, additions and outright corrections, corresponding to the page numbers of the first printing of the third edition. You'll find author's commentary in red throughout.

Some of these are simple typos and production inconsistencies. A few are the result of unnoticed changes made to the software itself (there were several beta versions), and still others are simple, no-excuses author errors. Our apologies for anything that may serve to sour your learning experience.

We'd like to thank Hans Steinhau, our German translator, for pointing out many of these. Next time, we hope to get him involved a little sooner in the process!

 

Changes/updates for Director 6 Demystified

 

Page 67:
Step 1. Should read "Shift-click to select all of channel 2; select "Join Sprite" from the Modify menu.
[This is a case of a menu change we didn't catch.]

 

Page 87
Last sentence, last paragraph, should read:

Experiment with the Font settings in the Modify menu until you've found a suitable "8" (I used 18 point New York, bold).
[These settings were in a different location in Director 5.]

 

Page 103:
The second caption should read:

There'll be a slight delay: When the playback head enters a frame with a Tempo channel command, the field above the Tempo channel displays a description.

 

Page 147:
First sentence. "In the previous chapter" should read "In a previous chapter".
[Yup, we were juggling the order of chapters until the last minute!]

 

Page 197:
3rd paragraph. Should be "by number and name" to "(by number or name)".

Last paragraph (heading) Should read "Viewing non-sprite info (in D5 mode)"

[The information in this section is valid only if the "Director 5 display style" mode is chosen in Director 6.]

 

Page 211:
Last paragraph. The phrase "Update and Compact." should read simply "Update."

 

Page 229:
In the caption, "the Script display mode" should read "The Behavior display mode."

Last paragraph. "the upper right-hand corner" should read "to the right of the marker "gutter"."

 

Page 251
Step 1. Change to "Open the BINGO.DIR movie that you created earlier."

[In other words, I want you to open your own "Bingo" movie, not the one included on the CD-ROM. By the way, some people are reporting that this exercise doesn't work as described on their machines. It may have to do with the color-depth settings of your monitor; try changing it to 8-bit color. If that doesn't do the trick, let me know.]

 

Page 304:
1st tip box. Change "20 lines of script" to "21 lines of script".
[Guess counting isn't my forte!]

 

Page 317:
3rd full paragraph. Ignore the sentence "We'll be visiting it in subsequent pages for "clip script" ideas.
[Actually, we never do visit it again. The "clip scripts" was a feature we took out of the book as soon as we learned about Behaviors, since they do more or less the same thing. This passing reference is all that remains of that earlier draft.]

Page 327:
3rd paragraph. "That's why Lingo that" should read "That's why Lingo".

 

Page 408:
First graph under heading. Change "a choice in the Events" to "a choice in the Actions".

 

Page 416:
[Important: This one was a real brain-bomb. The dang script won't work unless you invoke newFrame, as below.]

Step 7. Change text to:

newFrame 3

newFrame 4

newFrame 3

newFrame 5

newFrame 6

newFrame 7

 

Page 451:
Step 1. Change to "Open the movie "Running."

 

Page 496:
Last paragraph, last line. Change
end birth to end.
[This script will work as is, but the term birth is now falling out of favor with Macromedia.]

 

Page 502:
Paragraph 4. Change "Using the property
count" to "Using the function count".

[One of many instances in which I call a function a property, or vice versa. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference...and sometimes the distinction seems almost arbitrary.]

 

Page 514:
Last paragraph, second sentence. Change "enabled in the "Type" pull-down" to "enabled in the "Show" pull-down".
[Another case of the interface changing on us.]

 

Page 517:
4th paragraph. Change both instances of the word "nine" to "six".

 

Page 552:
Last callout box, last paragraph. Word "Properties" is typoed as "Propertoes".

 

Page 562:
3rd paragraph. Change "without having to having the master" to " without having to master".

 

Page 573:
[Important: Another case where a typo effects the functionality of the script.}
Step one. Change word
showXlibs to showXlib.

 

Page 595:
Wrong caption. Ignore entirely.
[Oops. That cut-and-paste feature is a double-edged sword.]

 

Page 634:
First paragraph, fifth sentence. "D6D Intro" should be "6Intro".
[When we burned the CD-ROM, some file names were changed to the old 8.3 naming convention (for Windows compatibility) out of force of habit. We forgot that introduced an inconsistency with the text.]

 

Page 637:
First graph. "D6D Intro" should be "6Intro".

 

Page 646:
4th graph. "the"CopyToHD" folder" should be "the"Then copy to your desktop" folder".

 

Page 661:
"Keep it lean" bullet point. "Creating the minimum file size" should be "Creating for the Web".

 

Page 723:
on endSprite: Delete "it'll simply execute if one or more new sprites is encountered."

in Notes: on beginSprite should be on endSprite.

 

Page 735:
on RightMouseUp. Phrase "on rightMouseDown" should be in Lingo script.

In context: line end if should be deleted.

 

Page 737:
In context: line
end if should be deleted.

 

Page 742:
Last in context: Script is incorrect. should read:

In context: If an object "lovechild" has been created with "hippie" as an ancestor, and the "hippie" script included a "hairlength" handler, this would return that handler's value:

call #hairlength, lovechild

Notes: This command can call handlers in behavior scripts, parent scripts and ancestors.

 

Page 743:
First in context: Script is incorrect. should read:

In context: If an object "lovechild" has been created with "hippie" as an ancestor, and the "hippie" script included a "hairlength" handler, this would return that handler's value:

call #hairlength, lovechild

Notes: This command can only call handlers in ancestor scripts.

 

Page 755:
First in context: last line

getLast petList
should be
getLast (petList)

 

Page 766:
play definition: delete line "play frame of movie [name]".
[This variation of the command used to work in earlier versions of Director, but doesn't seem to any more.]

 

Page 778:
First two in contexts: last line of first should read:

scrollByLine member "User List", 7

last line of second should read:

scrollByPage member "User List", 7

 

Page 780:
Second in context: Change to:

setTrackEnabled 1 = 0

 

Page 829:
First in context: Term on birth me should be on new me.

Second purpose: "Use this property" should be "Use this function".

 

Page 832:
First purpose: "This property" should be "This function".

 

Page 842:
Second in context: Second line should be in parenthesis.

 

Page 855:
The heading "the beep On" should be "the beepOn"
[It's important to pay attention to spaces, or the lack thereof.]

 

Page 858:
First elements: Quote marks should be placed around [pathname] in first line.

 

Page 868:
First pupose: "expressed in seconds" should read "expressed in milliseconds".

 

Page 941:
Second in context: in script , "TRUE" should read "FALSE".
[Sheepish grin.]

 

Page 958:
First in context: Change
the ink me to the ink of me

 

Page 966:
First in context, last script line: The line end should read end repeat.

 

Page 972:
Last elements: should read

word [number] of [expression]

 

 

 

Director 7 Demystified is published by Macromedia Press,
in association with
Peachpit Press. a division of Addison Wesley Longman.
Site contents copyright (c) 1998-99, Jason Roberts & Phil Gross