[4.2] CDs

As far as I am aware, the only third party CD of note for Director users is Gray Matter Design's MediaBook CD. The following is an early, enthusiastic report from Miles Lightwood (miles@rhythm.com):

At first glance it seems impressive. Its subject areas are: Lingo Interactive Dictionary, Lingo Library, General Reference Library, XObject Studio, Director ToolBox, and Resource Directory. It's a hybrid disc chock-full (595 MB) of tech notes, the Director ToolBox, Director updates, over 100 total Mac/Win XObjects (almost all royalty free), software demos, and all things Lingo. A welcome surprise is that most of the files are movies, not projectors, and much of the Lingo is commented. All of this is accessible from a common well-designed interface. Something that deserves special mention is the Director ToolBox. This is a suite of both passive (no performance hit) and active (performance hit) utility MIAWS that perform diagnostics and analyses on a running movie: All Sprites Properties, Calculator, Cast Properties, Cast Summary, Clock Timer, Extended Sprite Properties, Free Memory Display, Label Statistics, MemMon, MouseEye, RegPoint Tweaker, Score Scripts Remover, Script Outliner, Sprite Map, Sprite Properties, and System Properties. You access the ToolBox either through MediaBook or by putting a line of code in each of your start/stopMovie hands (open/close window "ToolBox"). This was thoughtfully designed with an open architecture so that all of the above, and get this, ANY OTHER MIAWs THAT YOU ADD are available from a main MIAW called Button Bar. To add your own MIAWs simply put them into a folder called Plug-Ins. Much needed. A feature that will benefit the beginner is the Interactive Lingo Dictionary. This is more than just a re-hash of the manuals as it contains undocs and many entries have a MIAW that describes and illustrates the Lingo in action; sort of like the long-awaited Apartment II: The Sequel.
I've only scratched the surface. It's impossible to describe everything on it; suffice to say that it will become an indispensible part of my Director development environment.

In general the response to this CD has been similarly positive, though one notable quibble is that the main interface movies need a fast machine (eg, a PowerMac) to run at a satisfactory speed. The MediaBook CD for Director is a Mac/Windows hybrid, available from:

gray matter design 3215 Broderick Street San Francisco California CA 94123 USA 1-415-243-0394 phone 1-415-243-0396 fax
SRP: $299