Technical Notes

The following notes are provided to answer any technical queries or issues that may arise during the use of Luxurious or Begin.

 

.ini file format

The .ini files used to store each presentation are ASCII text format. Due to this, they are cross-platform compatible and may be opened and edited in standard text editors. Despite this, though, we advise not doing so as it is easy to modify the contents so that neither Luxurious nor Begin can open the files.

In particular, individual lines containing data key pairs may not be ommitted or moved around at will. White space between sections must be exactly preserved. Block headers must refer to the exact file name specified in the ResourcesPath field. The decimal number at the very top of the header is a hash to ensure the integrity of the .ini file - altering it will stop the file from being valid. Furthermore, changing the filename of an .ini file outside of Luxurious will cause this hash to become invalid. Do not rename .ini files once they have been created by Luxurious.

Furthermore, all .ini files must be stored in the same top-level directory as the Begin runtime. Putting them into a subdirectory will cause problems.

 

Cross-platform deployment

The .ini files can be transported between Macintosh and Windows platforms. If created on the Macintosh version of Luxurious, these files will have Macintosh format linebreaks (0x0D). If created on the Windows version, these files will have DOS format linebreaks (0x0D, 0x0A). Either style can be read by either version of the software.

The ResourcesPath field and other fields refer to relative paths. These are always stored in DOS format, using back-slashes as path delimiters. There are never any leading or trailing back-slashes, as these paths must be relative. Even on the Macintosh platform, these DOS style paths are valid. Do not attempt to use Macintosh or Unix style paths (colon or forward-slash delimiters).

Ensure you use the correct Begin runtime for whichever platform you are authoring for. There are two versions of the Macintosh Begin runtime, one for Classic Macs (Mac OS 8 or 9), and one for Mac OS X. There is only one Windows Begin runtime. You may be able to produce your CD so as to share your resources folder between both platforms, but we encourage you burn two separate partitions, one for Windows (containing Begin.exe), and one for Mac OS (containing both the Classic and the X version of Begin).

 

Presentations

As of Luxurious 1.2, presentations are always at 800x600 resolution. When Begin launches, a black border is shown around the presentation if the user's resolution is higher than 800x600. If you need to author for a different resolution, please email us (mail@signwave.co.uk) to obtain alternative versions of Luxurious and Begin.

If you are using the Demo version of Luxurious, any presentations you save cannot be used with Begin. To remove this restriction, you need to purchase a serial number.

 

Begin on Windows and Macintosh

The Begin runtime attempts to go full-screen. On Macintosh systems, it hides the menu bar and Dock (if on Mac OS X). On Windows, it hides the task bar. Users may switch away from the Begin runtime without quitting by using the standard alt-tab key combination. As well as using the hotspot target of command:quit in your presentations, the Begin runtime can be terminated using Cmd-Q (Macintosh), or Alt-F4 (Windows).

Some Windows users may observe two window buttons in the task bar, with one being blank. This is because Windows cannot cause a window to go full-screen and hide the task bar without the use of an extra blanking window. This should not normally be a problem. The Begin runtime shipped with Luxurious 1.2 resolves a minor issue with this blanking window remaining active after the presentation has been terminated.