Marc Vertes, XLab author, re: Screenplays

["Dan Kaminsky" <effugas best com>]

I recently e-mailed Marc Vertes, author of XLab, about it's possible
appropriateness for my screenplay concept.  This is the reply I recieved.

Dan Kaminsky wrote:
>
> I'm working on the GNOME GUI project and one of my key concepts is that of
> the screenplay--instead of a help system that tells you to do x, y, z, the
> screenplay would literally show you what to do, with text overlays that
> describe the why's.
>
I find this idea really good. Much easier and quicker for the user to
understand, and it should also facilitate help material authoring, by
recording actions, instead of writing tons of pages to describe them.

> My question is if Xlab, in your opinion, is already or could be modified
to
> be useful for the screenplay project.  Note--the big deal is that the
app's
> state isn't actually modified--a new window comes up that executes the
given
> actions with no actual result.
>
I think that xlab is very close of being able to do that. I mean, all
the features are already there, it is possible for an external process
to "pilot" xlab via the command interpreter (stdin must be redirected),
adding specifics commands to command interpreter is easy (already
existing lex/yacc skeleton). Having the help window separate from the
user session is not only good from usage point of view, it is also a
requirement to allow xlab to replay actions properly (the context must
remain identical for consistency reasons).

In that scenario, the 'help' command would launch a xlab session :

xlab_cmd_pipe = popen("xlab -phelp_init");

where "help_init" is the beginning of the recorded file, containing all
the "XCreateWindow lines in the recorded script, and maybe an init
sequence), then attach the appli to it:

system("appli -display localhost:1"));

Each help topic would then activate the replay of a pre-recorded
sequence:

fprintf(xlab_cmd_pipe, "replay %s\n", help_sequence_file);
fflush(xlab_cmd_pipe);

What is probably missing in xlab at this moment: some control from the
user over the replay (pause, interrupt, etc...).

> Side question--would you be averse to proposals involving including Xlab
as
> a basic integrated tool in GNOME?  I want to know before I start writing
> those proposals.
No problem for me, go ahead.