A little smarter

Published by Vlasta on June 25th 2009.

RealWorld Cursor Editor beta is not far away and the online cursor library is going to get a small update as well. Things are going to get a little smarter.

The cursor library

The cursor editor is able to send cursors directly to the library. In the past, this was the only way, because the editor also generated a thumbnail image and extracted the attributes of the cursor (like the picture size or the number of frames).

A new feature of the library is the ability to accept normal file uploads. The library script is now able to generate thumbnails and analyze uploaded cursors on its own. Go ahead and give it a try.

Uploading from editor

When uploading a cursor, users must fill in a couple of attributes: their email, cursor name, description, license, type, role and presence of shadow.

The new version is going to make the process a little easier by being a little smarter:

• By analyzing the first frame of the cursor, it will try to guess if it contains shadow or not.
• From the position of the hot spot, it will try to determine if the cursor is meant for right-handed people, left-handed people, or both.
• It will remember the last used license.
• Author’s email address will no longer be filled in in the upload window. It would be taken from the application-wide setting accessible from the Online start page.

Now, I know that it would be nice if the application would be able to guess the role of the cursor. Maybe in the future… (hint: is there a volunteer with scientific genes willing to spend a lot of time on this task?)

Summary

Smart. Smart. Smart. That’s what I want you to think about the editor. Being able to fill in at least some fields for you instead of asking you to do it is a small step in this direction. Don’t you think?