So what’s going on here: the interpreter automatically saves the GlkOte data stream for every game. This includes the complete record of every game input and output. That’s how the transcript display can display the styles – a normal text transcript file can’t do that. It uses the regular Lectrote stylesheet, so it supports color themes and the rest of Lectrote’s display preferences.
If the game is a blorb file containing an iFiction record, the auto-transcript includes the bibliographic data from that record. So you get the nice header block identifying the game. If the game is not in a blorb file, the header block will just display the filename (like “title: Advent.z5”), which is better than nothing.
There’s a “Save as Text…” menu option to save a plain-text version of the transcript window display. This won’t have styles, but it will have the bibliographic header block.
(By the way, this new feature is completely separate from the regular game-based TRANSCRIPT that you have to turn on manually. You can still do that; it hasn’t changed at all. The new transcripts are in their own directory.)
If the interpreter supports autorestore, an autorestored game will continue the existing transcript. The “Reset Game” menu option will start a fresh game session and start a new transcript.
Transcripts are currently kept forever, unless you use the “Delete Transcript” menu option. I will probably add an auto-delete option in the next release.
If you delete a transcript but keep playing the game, it will start a new transcript that begins in the middle of the game. I guess that’s the only thing it can do?
If you play the same game in two Lectrote windows at the same time, they’ll both write to the same transcript file and the result will be very confusing. In fact it might corrupt the file. I guess that’s an open issue. Don’t do it, anyhow.
Currently, the transcript display only shows the story window. No graphics or status display. However, all that info is in the transcript file – that’s the advantage of using the GlkOte format. So I will be able to add a status-window view, or other display options, in future releases.
Here’s a preview: an option to show exact time of each player input, and how long the interpreter took to process the command. Select “Show Transcript Timestamps”, then mouse-hover over the little blue dots.
The transcripts are stored in the Library/Application Support/Lectrote/transcripts directory (MacOS), AppData\Roaming\Lectrote\transcripts (Windows), .config/Lectrote/transcripts (Linux). If you want to read a transcript as plain text without firing up Lectrote, I’ve written a small Python script which does the same thing: read-glktra.py.
This has been up for a month. (There’s a 1.5.1 update with a “Show File Location” menu option.)
Is anybody getting any use out of it? “Transcript everything” was thumbs-upped by at least three people in that Parser UI Features thread I linked to above.
Does this work for bundled 1.5.0 games as well? I’m releasing one in two days and it would be neat if I could tell people that are stuck ‘oh yeah check your transcript folder’.
(actually, it looks like this does work! I didn’t find it in appdata but I did find it with the transcript browser button).
fyi - i just downloaded the latest for macos and it’s VERY slow (z3 and z5 files). i don’t know if this is related to the transcription feature or not; i haven’t updated the app in a while so something could have changed in an earlier update.
