#CanDo to Director
11 messages in this thread
I'm tentatively considering moving from CanDo to Director. I'm creating a
CDTV applicationa – animated children's story book. System mainly comprises
brushes/bruah animations/picture IFF's/sound IFF's.
Reasons for change: CanDo has no transitions between pics; cannot spool
sounds/anims from disk.
Would I be able to pick up Director quickly – I use CanDO scripting
extensively now. What specific CDTV support does Director have.
Jonathan
If you can program in BASIC you will have no problem with The Director.
The program will allow pictures to be loaded while other pictures are being
displayed. I have heard of at least one CDTV product that uses The
Director. There are probably more.
There are reviews of authoring packages in both Amiga World and Amazing
Computing this month which cover most of the products on the market.
I've used The Director for three or four years now and, with a little
knowledge of BASIC, you can do well with it. The learning curve often
mentioned in reviews is not really off-putting, and, is made more palatable
by the documentation, which for Version 2 is just excellent. I have had
several occasions to phone Right Answers for help and have always received
immediate comprehensible and considerate help. Their support has been
excellent.
Once you experience the power and flexibility of The Director, I doubt
you'll want to use anything else.
Best, George Roland
Have you also used CanDO to any extent such that you could make a
comparison.
No, I have never used CanDo. The articles I mentioned cover the differences
pretty well. It seems CanDo is able to create projects one can run without
owning the software unlike AmigaVision, and that it is well done among the
graphic user interface presentation packages. It does require entry of
text, scripts or programs, whatever you want to call 'em and is, I believe,
ultimately less capable than The Director2.
Best, G. Roland
I think D2's control of the Blitter is the thing that sets it WAY ahead
of the rest of the multimedia packages. Director 2 also takes great
advantage of Amigas multitasking ability to load files while other files
are being used. I believe CanDo can't duplicate these features.
I think you left the message to the wrong person. I'm all for Director 2.
The support provided by Right Answers is great. I wish the interface was a
little more like like AmigaVision but that is a small quibble. The manual
is a masterpiece and should be used as an example of how documentation
should be written.
Gee thanks, George, that's a great compliment about the manual. I
personally like to avoid entering into comparisons because I'm kinda
biased. 🙂
Keith
Oops. Sorry that message was originally from Leslie, not George, well,
thank you guys anyway.
Keith
You thanked George for the complements on the manual but I think you
meant me <g>. You're welcome. I'm a big booster of Director 2!
Actually, I complimented Right Answers on the Driector 2 and the manual as
well. I teach computer art in a college and the Director is used in my
class and in my own artwork. I tell every Amiga artist I know about it, and
find many enthusiastic users. I spoke with one in Rochester NY just this
week who indicated he'd never had any programming experience and found the
Director's docs so good he had had no trouble getting up to speed in a
short period of time. On-line help provided by Right Answers, or help over
the phone has always been excellent. Thanks Keith, et al for a great job!
Best, George