.\" @(#)journalling.1 9.2 88/01/19 Copyright 1987 Sun Micro
.TH JOURNALLING 1  "27 October 1987"
.IX journalling(1) "" "\fIjournalling\fP(1) \(em record and playback package"
.SH NAME
journalling \- NeWS event record and playback package
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBjournalling\fP
.SH DESCRIPTION
The Journalling package allows you to capture NeWS mouse 
and keyboard events onto a file, and then play the file back.
This results in NeWS acting like a player piano,
faithfully duplicating the original user actions in real time. 
.sp
This package permits continuous replaying of a given file.
Playback can be interrupted at any time by clicking one of the mouse buttons.
.sp
Journalling also includes playback speed control, which allows you to slow
down or speed up the playback rate.
.SH "USAGE"
Invoking the \fIjournalling\fR program
will add a \fIJournalling =>\fR
menu item to the root menu. 
The \fIJournal\fP menu item in the \*(Sd \fIApplications\fR => sub-menu does the
same thing.
Note that it will take a few seconds for journalling to load everything 
into the \*(Sd server.
.sp
There are five submenus under the main Journalling menu item:
.sp
.RS .5i
\fBControl Panel\fP - Brings up the Journalling control panel

\fBStart Recording\fP - Start recording on the current Record file

\fBStop Recording\fP - Signals the end of recording

\fBPlayback\fP - Starts playback of the current Playback file

\fBRemove Journalling\fP - Gets rid of all journalling menus and resources
.RE
.sp
Note that Playback can be interrupted at any time by hitting one of
the mouse keys.
.sp
Selecting the Control Panel item brings up a control panel window.
It contains the following items:
.sp
.RS .5i
\fBRECORD, STOP, and PLAY buttons\fP: These buttons perform the same 
function as the corresponding menu items. They also light up to 
indicate what action is currently taking place. They can be used 
interchangeably with the menu items.
.sp
\fBRecord File\fP: This text item allows you to specify the current file 
to record onto. It can be any valid filename on the server machine. 
Relative pathnames are taken to be relative to the directory
that NeWS was started from. The default for the Record file is 
\fI/tmp/NeWS.journal\fP.
.sp
\fBPlayback File\fP: The current file to playback from. It has the same 
characteristics as the Record File.
.sp
\fBPlay Forever toggle switch\fP:  If this switch is on then Journalling 
will automatically repeat playing the Playback File.

\fBPlayback Speed\fP: Slider that scales the playback time.
Positive values make playback speed up,
negative values make playback slow down.
This facility is dependent on the speed of the underlying hardware.
It is not calibrated between different machines.

\fBDone\fP: The Done button will hide the Control Panel.
It can be brought back up by selecting the \fIControl Panel\fP menu item.
The \fIZap\fP window command has the same effect.
.RE

.SH "TIPS FOR USING JOURNALLING"
When creating journals that will be replayed repeatedly, it is important
to get rid of whatever windows you have created at the end of the 
journal.
The state of the screen should be just as it was when the journal was begun.
Otherwise, the NeWS server will eventually run out
of memory because you are continually creating new windows.
Doing a \fIZap\fP from the \fIAll Windows\fP menu
at the end of the journal will provide the desired effect.
However, be sure that you then restart a Console window to catch
system messages.

There is a noticeable variation in performance on NeWS running on 
different kinds of machines;
it runs much faster on a Sun 4 than on a 3/50!
This means that playing back a script recorded on a fast machine
might not always work correctly on a slower machine.
A given machine can handle NeWS events at some maximum rate.
The Playback Speed Control will allow you to adapt playback speed
of a given script to a fairly wide range of machines;
unfortunately, this requires a bit of trial and error. 

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,
leading to unpredictable behavior
due to the window not being where it was when recording.
.SH FILES
.TP 40n
${NEWSHOME}/lib/NeWS/journal.ps 
Contains the low level journalling code,
the control panel and menu code, and
state button Lite Item code used by the control panel.
.TP 40n
${NEWSHOME}/demo/journalling 
Loads \fI${NEWSHOME}/lib/NeWS/journal.ps\fP.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.br
\fINeWS Manual\fP
.SH BUGS
The unpredictable behavior of playback due to the non-deterministic
Unix scheduling mechanism and general operating environment
make reliance on the Journalling package for critical functions
unadvisable.