NAME

journalling − NeWS event record and playback package

SYNOPSIS

journalling

DESCRIPTION

The Journalling package allows you to capture NeWS mouse and keyboard events onto a file and play the file back.  This results in NeWS’ faithfully duplicating the original user actions in real time.  This package permits continuous replaying of a given file. Playback can be interrupted at any time by clicking any of the mouse buttons.

USAGE

Invoke the journalling program from the Demo Navigator: a few seconds are required for journalling to initialize.  When initialization is complete, a control panel window appears.  The control panel contains the following items:

RECORD, STOP, and PLAY buttons — Pressing RECORD starts recording onto the current recording file.  Pressing STOP terminates recording.  Pressing PLAY starts playback from the current playback file. The buttons light up to indicate what action is currently taking place.  File — This text item allows you to specify the current file that is used to store a journalling script.  This is also the file that is used for playback, The default value of this text item is /tmp/NeWS.journalling.  Play Forever toggle switch — If this switch is on, the action items in the Playback File are played back repeatedly without stopping.  The playback can be terminated by clicking on the mouse buttons.  Synchronization toggle switch — This switch allows you to toggle between synchronous and non-synchronous modes of playback.  The default value is true (i.e., synchronous journalling playback). 

TIPS FOR USING JOURNALLING

When a journal is created for repeated playback, all windows created after journalling has started should be removed before journalling ends:  otherwise, the server re-creates the windows whenever playback begins and eventually runs out of memory.  Thus, at the end of a journalling session, the state of the screen should be exactly as it was at the beginning.  Different machines produce a noticeable variation in journalling performance. For example, journalling is faster on a Sun 4 than on a Sun 3/50. Playback of a script recorded on a fast machine might not work correctly on a slower machine.  Any given machine has a maximum rate at which NeWS events can be handled.  Care must be taken when recording sequences that contain invocations of Unix programs, particularly when starting new applications.  The mouse must not be clicked until the bounding box is up on the screen. If the mouse is clicked early, the wrong window-sizing will be made on playback:  this will lead to unpredictable behavior, due to the window’s not being where it was when recording. Always proceed slowly while recording a script. Remember there is no synchronization. For example, when recording a sequence of actions such as typing ‘ls -l’ into a terminal window and then cutting and pasting the command into another terminal window, allow the command to complete before cutting and pasting: otherwise indeterminate results may follow on playback. 

FILES

${OPENWINHOME}/demo/journalling

BUGS

Do not use the Journalling package for critical functions: the behavior of playback is unpredictable, due to the non-deterministic nature of the Unix scheduling mechanism and the general operating environment. 
 

{:heading=>"JOURNALLING\|(\|1\|)\0\0\(em\0\0\∗(]D"}  —  Last change: 14 June 1989  —  Last change: 14 June 1989