Errata

Lingo in a Nutshell errata 01/20/00
Director in a Nutshell errata11/14/99

One big complaint about LiaN especially is that the index doesn't have everything you are looking for. Please email me with suggested improvements for the index in the next version or just to ask me where you can find something.

Please note that there are lists of all figures, examples, and tables for LiaN and DiaN at:

If you have questions about D7's dot syntax see:

http://www.zeusprod.com/nutshell/dotsyntax.html

Errata for Lingo in a Nutshell

The Lingo continuation character (which resembles an "L" lying on its side) continues long lines of Lingo onto the next line. Throughout the book, some of the examples have the notation "[LC]" at the end of the lines of code. This was supposed to be converted during the printing process to the Lingo continuation character as described on page xiv of the Preface. You should replace [LC] with the Lingo continuation character, created using Option-Return (or Option-L) on the Macintosh or Alt-Enter under Windows. This affects the examples in Table 1 (see the corrected version in the downloadable examples.)

Table 1: Errors involving [LC] in place of the Lingo continuation character

Chapter Page Reference

Preface xiv "Examples" section

Chapter 1 27 Example 1-10: Using Parameters

Chapter 1 67 In the "on myHandler" handler following "...#float:c],"

Chapter 6 192 Example 6-11: Reversing Unsorted Lists following "addProp"

Chapter 6 206 Example 6-20: Extracting Unknown Properties from a List, following "put "This"...."

Chapter 6 256 In the "on exitFrame" handler following "if rollover(5)..."

Chapter 10

11/04/99
290-291 Example 10-9: Password Entry Field (the error occurs three times starting between the top of page 291 and about midway down the page). See a corrected version of this handler in the Chapter 10 Addenda.

Chapter 12 344 In the "on getPropertyDescriptionList" handler following "set propList ="

Chapter 14 387 Following "set myPrefFolder...."

Chapter 17 431 Table 17-1, under "the lineHeight of line"

Chapter 18 490 Table 18-1, under "on cuePassed"

Chapter 18 492 Table 18-1, under "on streamStatus"

Chapter 18 503 Table 18-1, under "score"

Appendix D 566 In the second line of the "on startup" handler under "Lingo.INI for Director for Windows"

Table 2: Other Substantive Errors in LiaN

Chapter Page Reference

Chapter 1 8
The figure for "Example 1-2: Nested Handler Calls" incorrectly shows control returning from handlerE to handler B, when in fact it should show control returning from handlerD back to handlerB. HandlerE is never reached and never used in the example, as per the text on page 9.

The tail of the arrow labelled "3" should originate at the "end" statement following "on handlerD", not the "end" statement following "on handlerE". The head of the arrow correctly points to 'put "I'm back in handlerB"'.

(reported by Joseph D. Walters)

Chapter 1 21
Example 1-8 - The createScript handler is missing & characters following the word RETURN on lines 2 and 3.

See the corrected version in the downloadable examples.

Chapter 1 29
on mouseUp -- Should be "then" not "the" if gTwo = 7 then put gOne end

Chapter 1 39 There should not be a comma after the continuation character towards the bottom of the page.

Chapter 10

11/04/99
290-291 Example 10-9: Password Entry Field has some errors. See a corrected version of this handler in the Chapter 10 Addenda.

Chapter 11

01/20/00
314
Example 11-7 is wrong. The year as returned by the getDate() function in the old UI Helper Xtra is calculated from 1900. It returns 100 if the computer's clock is set to the year 2000. I was trying to demonstrate what to do if you do NOT know the century or have the getDate() function available, such as in Shockwave 6. See the updates to Chapter 11 of LiaN for a corrected example, plus a sleeker version for Director/Shockwave 7.

(Reported by Tim Ryan)

Chapter 12 333
Testing Example 12-10 in the message window is missing the keyword "new". It should look like this:

add edenList, new (script "Eden", #male, "Adam")

not this:

add edenList, (script "Eden", #male, "Adam")

(submitted by Thomas Peters)

Chapter 18 508
Table 18-1, the default for soundKeepDevice is TRUE in D6, D6.5, and D7 and FALSE in D7.0.2. Setting it to FALSE will often eliminate sound device conflicts as described in Chapter 15 of Director in a Nutshell. Setting it to TRUE may result in better sound performance when using DirectSound.

The soundKeepDevice appears to behave as if it is FALSE during authoring, but is obeyed in a Projector. (That is why some sounds that played during authoring don't always play at runtime). That said, the soundKeepDevice does indeed default to TRUE in versions prior to D7.0.2, although it is ignored in D7.0 where DirectSound mixing is not supported.

In D7.0.2, the soundKeepDevice defaults to FALSE, and it is relevant only when the soundDevice is "DirectSound" (the default if DirectSound 5 or higher is installed). Setting the soundDevice to "MacroMix" (or "QT3Mix") disregards the soundKeepDevice setting.

Appendix D

11/04/99
563
In the [Sound] section, it should read either

DLLname="Macromix.DLL"

or

DLLname = "QT3mix.DLL"

(The book mistakenly says "QMIX.DLL" and that is wrong. I have no idea where "BuickFimez" came from on page 563. I assume it was a typesetting quirk.)

Table 3: Minor Typographical Errors in LiaN

Chapter Page Reference

Chapter 3 114
Top of page, should read, "For example, I always use sprite scripts and never use cast scripts" not "cost" scripts.

(submitted by Douglas.D.Campbell)

Chapter 3 114
Middle of page should read:

"If necessary, convert strings to lists.", not "correct strigns to lists."

(submitted by Douglas.D.Campbell)

Chapter 3 125
"lion" is missing a quote at the top of the page

(submitted by Douglas.D.Campbell)

Chapter 17 433 Table 17-1: The entry for "on alertHook" should say, "See Table 16-1 for complete details." Incorrect details have earlier floated around the MM TechNotes, but they've probably been fixed by now.

Appendix E 576 Table E-1: Lingo Errors under "Property Not Found" it should say "sprite asset type", not "spriter asset type".

Appendix E 580
Table E-2: Director Error Codes, type 11 is a "general Mac configuration error", not a "genereal" one.

(submitted by Douglas.D.Campbell)

Colophon 611 The Colophon is titled "About the Authors". Though I'm schizophrenic and moody, there is only one author, not multiple authors.

Table 4: Clarificiations and Tips in LiaN

Chapter Page Reference

Chapter 2 86 Shift-F8 is a shorter shortcut for compiling scripts than the shortcuts shown under the Control menu, Cmd-Shift-Opt-C (Mac) or Ctrl-Shift-Alt-C (Windows)

Chapter 2

11/04/99
103 I refer to the Event Test movie that is allegedly available on my web site. This hasn't been posted yet. Sorry I've been incredibly busy since forever.

Chapter 2 109 Modifying the actorList in a stepFrame handler should no longer crash Director, but it is still not necessarily advised. It may have been fixed as earlier as version 5.0.1.

Chapter 6

11/04/99
213
Under "Text Lists and Pick Lists" you can also add the "interface()" function. It is an alternative to the "mMessageList()" function, and I believe is the preferred method in D7. I've always used mMessageList in D7 and never had any problem.

(Submitted by Kevin boyd).

Chapter 12

11/04/99
346 See Chapter 12 Addenda for more details on using the spriteNum of me and custom properties.

Appendix E

11/11/99
568-586 See Appendix E Addenda for more details on Lingo error codes.

Colophon 611 The Colophon is titled "About the Authors". Though I'm schizophrenic and moody, there is only one author, not multiple authors.

Errata for Director in a Nutshell

Table 5: Substantive Errors in DiaN

Chapter Page Reference

Chapter 6

11/04/99
190
The sentence following Example 6-8 should read:

"A MIAW gains focus and its on activateWindow handler is called..."

I mistakenly had said that "its on activeWindow handler is called," but the activeWindow is a property (discussed on page 186) not an event.

Don't confuse "the activeWindow" and "on activateWindow" like I did. :-)

(Submitted by Janie "Fantastic Plastic")

Chapter 9 290 I incorrectly stated "There is no speed difference between D7's new dot notation and the older Lingo syntax." That is partially true, but also often false. See my tech note on Dot Syntax Performance for details.

Chapter 16

11/04/99
566
At the bottom of page under "Synchronous Video Playback", the second sentence in the first paragraph incorrectly refers to the "the movieTime of sprite".

It should read:

"The movieRate of sprite is used to start and stop the video..."

(Submitted by Kevin boyd).

Table 6: Clarifications and Tips in DiaN

Chapter Page Reference

Chapter 4

11/04/99
137
A reader asks:

You show that setting "property spriteNum" at the beginning of a behaviour will allow you to use "spriteNum" in place of "the spriteNum of me". Is this unique to the spriteNum property or can one do this with other properties?

See my full reply.

Chapter 6

11/04/99
176
The following will not work properly:

open window the moviePath &"credits.dcr"

This is a known precedence issue discussed in Macromedia's documentation and on page 178 of LiaN., but I failed to mention it in the MIAW chapter in DiaN.

open window the moviePath &"credits.dcr"

is interpreted as:

(open window the moviePath) &"credits.dcr"

which is not going to do you any good.

Use parentheses as follows, instead:

open window (the moviePath &"credits.dcr")

Chapter 6

11/04/99
189
Regarding Table 6-6 on page 189, Janie "Fantastic Plastic" reports that the "on moveWindow" event is sent when a window attains focus due to a user click, regardless of whether the user drags the window.

She wrote code on the assumption that if the user moved the window to the front, the on activateWindow handler would be called, and if the user moved the window by dragging it, the on moveWindow handler would be called, along with the on activateWindow if the said window was not previously the activeWindow. She said she had to restructure the code to handle the fact that on moveWindow is called -every time- a window is activated by the user.

I haven't personally investigated the above situation, so YMMV.

(Submitted by Janie "Fantastic Plastic")

Colophon 629 The Colophon refers to my copious spare time, which is an error. I have little spare time. That sentence should instead read "Bruce copulates in his spare time."

Chapter	Page	Reference
Preface	xiv	"Examples" section
Chapter 1	27	Example 1-10: Using Parameters
Chapter 1	67	In the "on myHandler" handler following "...#float:c],"
Chapter 6	192	Example 6-11: Reversing Unsorted Lists following "addProp"
Chapter 6	206	Example 6-20: Extracting Unknown Properties from a List, following "put "This"...."
Chapter 6	256	In the "on exitFrame" handler following "if rollover(5)..."
Chapter 10 11/04/99	290-291	Example 10-9: Password Entry Field (the error occurs three times starting between the top of page 291 and about midway down the page). See a corrected version of this handler in the Chapter 10 Addenda.
Chapter 12	344	In the "on getPropertyDescriptionList" handler following "set propList ="
Chapter 14	387	Following "set myPrefFolder...."
Chapter 17	431	Table 17-1, under "the lineHeight of line"
Chapter 18	490	Table 18-1, under "on cuePassed"
Chapter 18	492	Table 18-1, under "on streamStatus"
Chapter 18	503	Table 18-1, under "score"
Appendix D	566	In the second line of the "on startup" handler under "Lingo.INI for Director for Windows"