Appendix H - Support Programs
In the Emotions and Feelings modules of the package, several scenes are displayed
(see appendix A). On each of the scenes, one of a set of seven emotional
expressions (figure H.1) can be selected. Each of the expressions has a picture
of the expression associated with it, very similar to the representation of the
expression given in the "emotional controls", but without the oval representing
the "face", the drawing of which would otherwise disrupt any existing depiction
of the face within the scene (figure H.2).
fig. H.1 - the emotional palette.
fig. H.2 - the actual pictures as drawn onto a scene, of the emotional expressions.
When an expression is drawn into a particular scene, the package
needs some way of knowing where to place the expression within that scene. Since
each of the expressions can be a different size, each scene must have a position
for every possible expression, since any expression may appear in it. In order
to do this, a special resource for each scene holds the coordinates of the
expressions within that scene.
Although Apple's ResEdit resource editor is excellent for editing standard system
resources, it is not designed for editing the custom resources used to define
the locations of the expressions. In order to edit these resources a special
program was written, which allows the user to graphically place each of the emotional
expressions within a scene. The program will record the locations of the
expressions, and build a resource of the appropriate type and structure. There
is a second program to quickly
display the expressions for a scene for the purposes of checking, without having
to use the main package. The main package and these utility programs, share
code which positions the scenes and the expressions, and also code which defines
the resource structure.
back to Appendix G. forward to Appendix I