Hypercompendia

Just a note on this process, where I don’t believe at this point that I need an “Install” feature, but am depending on “Drag and Drop” or “Copy and Paste” to move the work onto a user’s computer. I don’t believe it will be a problem, as it doesn’t really require other programs to work (except the browser, I guess).

Meanwhile, I’m enjoying the problem-solving and working towards a goal of this project, even though maybe everyone else is giggling and snickering because they already know an easier way to do this.

April 15, 2012

Cleaned off a larger thumbdrive so that I can use the same drive for all explorative copies. Copied “abob2” onto the drive (abob2 has the file:///Users/smgct1/Desktop/abob2/abottleofbeer.html linkage. Copied it three more times into folders named:

abobDrive (for enabling the hypertext to work directly off a removable drive)
abobMac (for enabling the hypertext to be put into a file on the drive, such as     Applications)

abobWin (for enabling the hypertext to be put into a file on the drive, such as     Programs)

Then realized that before I did this, I probably should have run the copies through Tinderbox to change all the links automatically rather than manually.

Another note, am using “A Bottle of Beer” because it has only one link to a new page on each page, uses stretchtext, uses images, and besides, it’s still my favorite piece of hypertext work.

Checked the WinXP pc to find that the thumbdrive which was called “Volumes/BEER” (BEER being the name I assigned to the drive) won’t work on the PC, which I knew, but hoped that Windows called a drive a drive and not its designated Letter. In this case, what I found I would need for a link would be:

<a href=”F:/abob2/abottleofbeer.html”

So Windows puts the path as the letter-designated drive and unfortunately, everyone will have a different letter on their ISB drive.

Next, I’ll try the concept of placing two versions of the piece of work on the drive, one for Mac and one for Windows, and try to find a common Programs path in Windows where it could be installed. Likely, it’d be something simple like:

<a href=”C:/Programs/abob2/abottleofbeer.html”>

And, I suppose, try to do something similar for a Mac installation, or else not make the piece available for both on the same drive.

Thinking out loud here, working around the individual end user file names, and if the Mac or the PC programs call the CD, thumbdrive or whatever by different names:

Unless I find a universal path name for all end users, even if it’s one for Mac and one for PC, I might have to make the file installable instead. For example, instructions (on a Mac) would be something to the effect “drag the folder into your “Applications” file–

“file:///Applications/BEER/abob2/abottleofbeer.html”

That would bypass the need for a Users/–?–/Desktop etc. variable. For Windows, some other obvious item like “Programs” might be the way to go (I’m going to check this out on the PC, as well as try the thumbdrive as soon as I feel like getting up and going into the computer room).

What this would mean is that while the hypertext would not be playable on the removable drive itself, it would have to be installed onto the user’s computer. Probably fine, but this always bugged me with games, where you needed both on the PC installation and the CD to access all the features. And, the user would have to park the file ONLY in the one place specified.

The abob2 project:

Purpose: To transfer a working hypertext to a CD and have it work from there.

Started: April 13th, 2012

Using “A Bottle of Beer”, copied files from abob to abob2 folder on Desktop. Included Images folder, all jQuery files and folder, CSS sheet, html sheets and individual page htmls.

Changed links from their online version at Hypercompendia:

<a href=“http:susangibb.net/blog2/wp-content/uploads/abob/bottleofbeer.html”>

To link internally within the folder on the desktop:

<a href=”file:///Users/smgct1/Desktop/abob2/bottleofbeer.html”>

April 14th, 2012:

Everything is working, complete with images, stretchtext jQuery, and links.

Next step would be to see what code will be necessary to use on a CD drive.

Problems: Users might need instead to point to the CD drive (C?), and indeed, Users may be Mac only versus whatever PC (Windows) may use as file designation, and not Desktop.  And, will “file:///” work? Maybe as long as I can get a generic for the drive/name of CD/then folder name/then file name/

Got the #hypertext to work on a thumbdrive but I see what the glitch is going to be…the difference in what a drive is called on user computer.

As soon as a few files were copied and pasted onto the empty thumbdrive (had to name the thumbdrive “BEER” and put a folder called “abob2” and the files within that), when one is opened, you can see what that file is named. I then changed the code on each page to:

<a href=”file:///Volumes/BEER/abob2/bottleofbeer.html”>

Did not transfer the jquery and complete image file because the drive I’m using is low volume and couldn’t take the whole piece. But the one image on the opening page is fine.

NOTE: Obviously, it will be easier to create the html pages in Tinderbox with the appropriate links at the time the work is being done rather than the necessity of changing code with an existing piece geared for online use.