Q I'm confused about the implemenation of the AutoStart feature that was
announced with Quicktime 2.1's release. Can you tell me how to create a CD with
this feature that will work cross-platform?
A The AutoStart feature first documented in the release notes for Quicktime 2.1
has been available since the release of Quicktime 2.0. This means that any CD
title you release today with an AutoStart application or document will likely
work with most users' current installation of software since Quicktime 2.0 has
been available for well over a year. (Of course, there are other benefits of
using Quicktime 2.1 over 2.0 but that discussion isn't the point of this
Q&A.)
AutoStart Implementation Details:
The AutoStart feature is only available on HFS volumes because AutoStart relies
on information located in block zero of a HFS disk or partition. The first two
bytes in the sector of block zero should be `0' (zero) or `LK', although this
realistically should be limited to just 0 since LK designates a HFS boot
volume. The name of the AutoStart file is stored in the area allocated for the
clipboard name. This area begins 106 bytes into the sector of block zero with
the first 4 bytes at this offset containing the hex value 0x006A7068. This hex
value indicates that an AutoStart file name follows. After this four byte tag,
12 bytes of space remain starting at offset 110. In these 12 bytes, the name of
the AutoStart file is stored as a Pascal string giving you up to 11 characters
to identify the file. The file must reside in the root directory of the HFS
volume or partition.
You may designate either an application or a document as the AutoStart file. If
you choose an application as the AutoStart file, it may be visible or invisible
in the root directory of the volume, however, document files must be visible.
Additionally, you may select an alias file as the AutoStart file, but it too
must be visible in the root directory of the volume or partition. If the
AutoStart file is a document or an alias to a document, Quicktime will ask the
Finder to launch the document as if it had been double clicked from the Finder.
If the creating application is not available, the Finder will issue its normal
warnings or use Macintosh Easy Open if available.
Creating an AutoStart Volume:
The real goal of the AutoStart feature in Quicktime 2.0/2.1 is for users to be
immediately engaged, upon insertion of a CD ROM product, in an experience of
the developer's choice: be it jumping right into a multimedia program, or
reading an important 'ReadMe' document. Because there is no way to bypass the
launch of the AutoStart file (except for disabling Quicktime at startup), you,
the developer, must determine what user experience you want to capture and
decide whether or not the AutoStart feature makes sense for your project.
Creation of the AutoStart block zero information is dependant on the CD ROM
mastering software that you use. Currently, only Asarte Gmbh's Toast CD-ROM Pro
software is known to write the AutoStart information. We expect, however, other
CD ROM mastering software packages to adopt this ability soon. Check with the
developer of your CD mastering sofware if you aren't certain of its
capabilities.
Cross-Platform Issues:
The AutoStart feature wasn't implemented in Quicktime for Windows primarily
because new CD-ROM drivers are needed; the current drivers don't know when a
new CD is inserted. When producing a cross-platform CD title, you'll need to
create a hybrid disk that has a HFS partition if you want to use the AutoStart
feature. You can create a HFS/ISO 9660 hybrid disk with your Mac project on the
HFS partition and your cross-platform files on the ISO 9660 partition for use
by both the Mac and PC main programs. Of course, this means that you wouldn't
have any AutoStart features on the PC platform unless you implemented a PC
solution (like Windows95 auto play feature) on the ISO 9660 partition.
