ScreencastDirector

An ApplicationCommand that can be used to direct a screencast. Allows for interactivity, too, so you can automate some tasks, and manually do others. Mimics typing, and if you get nitty-gritty, it can mimic all your ST2 commands.

Installation

1. Using Package Control, install “ScreencastDirector”

Or:

1. Open the Sublime Text Packages folder

   • OS X: ~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 3/Packages/
   • Windows: %APPDATA%/Sublime Text 3/Packages/
   • Linux: ~/.Sublime Text 3/Packages/ or ~/.config/sublime-text-3/Packages

2. clone this repo

3. Install keymaps for the commands (see Example.sublime-keymap for my preferred keys)

Commands

• screencast_bind_source: Establishes the current window as the “director”
• screencast_bind_target: Establishes the current window as the “screencast”
• screencast_director_run: Run current command and move “command cursor” to the next command.
• screencast_director_previous: Moves the “command cursor” backward.
• screencast_director_next: Moves the “command cursor” forward.

Director Commands and Examples

write(*what_to_write): This will write some text with a slightly random delay, to give the appearance of a human typing. Accepts multiple arguments, and inserts a newline between each argument.

- write: ['line one', 'line two', 'line three']

delay: Pauses, default is .1 sec. Used in write to simulate typing, but also useful in director scripts.

- delay: 1500  # pause for 1.5 secs

write_inside: SublimeText prints matching quotes, and I wanted to simulate that in my screencasts. This command makes it easy:

- write_inside: "'string in single quotes'"
- write_inside: ["'", "again, using array", "'"]
- write_inside:
    - \'
    - write: you can nest commands, too!
    - \'

go: Move the cursor forward or backward by N letters.

- go: -10  # go back ten
- write: HI!
- go: 10  # return to previous position

select_all: self-explanatory

- select_all

delete: removes selected text

- delete

clear: select_all, delete, and clear_marks

- clear

set_mark: Sets a mark, so you can return somewhere after some crazy commands. goto_mark: Returns cursor to previous saved position.

a “name” is optional, and defaults to __tmp__

- set_mark  # same as set_mark: __tmp__
- set_mark: my_mark_name
- goto_mark  # same as goto_mark: __tmp__
- goto_mark: my_mark_name

select_from_mark: Selects from the mark to the position of the cursor. Uses the same names (default: tmp) as set_mark/goto_mark.

- set_mark
- write: "this will be deleted in one second"
- delay: 1000
- select_from_mark
- delete

run_command: Run any SublimeText command! You can do almost anything using this one, so if you are tempted to create a new command, consider using this one instead.

- write: "I will fix this mitsake."
- delay: 500
- go: -5
- delay: 500
- run_command: [transpose_character]

Writing Director Commands

I am totally open to pull requests that add more director functions! They are just a teensy bit hard to understand at first if you're just looking at the source code. So here goes.

The ScreencastDirector class is the class that contains all the commands that can be used in your director.yaml files. An instance of the ScreencastDirector class is created when the plugin is loaded (the_director if you're following along in the source).

The entries in your YAML source file are “executed” when you run the screencast_director_run command, which pretty much delegates the work to ScreencastDirector._run. All the entries are “executed” immediately, which is to say that the command queue is built up at this time.

Let me say this more clearly: ScreencastDirector methods add one or more functions to the command queue, based on the contents of an entry in your YAML file.

When you add a command to the queue, you can pass in the delay parameter to control timing. Here is the delay command, which is the simplest of all:

def delay(self, delay=100):
    def _delay(cursor, e):
        pass
    self._append_command(_delay, delay)

We don't even need to “sleep” in the command - that's taken care of by passing the delay parameter to _append_command. We did have to accept the cursor and e arguments. If you make a change to the position of the cursor, you must return that new location (or selection). The e argument is a sublime.Edit object. Since most commands will need to make a change of some sort, it is provided for convenience.

Let's look at a simplified version of write. It “types” each letter of input, with a random delay between each letter to imitate actual typing. We will need to call target_view.replace to insert the text (if a previous command makes a selection, this command will overwrite it), and then return our new cursor location.

def write(self, what_to_write):
    def _write_letter(letter):
        def _write(cursor, e):
            self.target_view.replace(e, cursor, letter)
            return cursor.a + len(letter)
        return _write

    for letter in what_to_write:
        delay = random.randrange(50, 200)
        self._append_command(_write_letter(letter), delay=delay)

The actual implementation does much more - it supports multiple arguments, and if the argument “looks like” a command, it will execute that entry (aka “add those commands to the queue” - remember, an entry adds commands to the queue).

For your commands, just remember:

• For every edit, create a new function and add it to the queue using _append_command. It is common to accept a delay argument from the YAML source.
• The actual command accepts two arguments: cursor (a sublime.Region object), and edit (a sublime.Edit object). Other than that, you should use the arguments that were passed in from the source file.

If you're having trouble, create an issue and I'll take a look.

Examples

These are all silent films, which is just my preference. Any screen recording app can take audio, and you can actually sit back and read your script while ScreencastDirector does all the typing — typo free!

https://media.colinta.com/screencasts/bracketeer.mp4 https://media.colinta.com/screencasts/move_text.mp4 https://media.colinta.com/screencasts/quickfind.mp4 https://media.colinta.com/screencasts/transpose_character.mp4

Even ScreencastDirector itself!

https://media.colinta.com/screencasts/screencast_director.mp4

Unfortunately, I didn't save the transcripts for most of these… I usually just use a scratch document. I recommend that you do as I say and not as I do: save your transcripts! It is useful when you realize there was a mistake and need to rerecord the video. Here is the director.yaml file for ScreencastDirector: https://github.com/colinta/SublimeScreencastDirector/blob/master/director.yaml