[tor-dev] Producing automated screencasts for Tor Browser

[Karsten Loesing]

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Hi devs,

we're making some medium-term plans to produce automated screencasts
that explain how to download, verify, and run Tor Browser on Windows,
Mac OS X, and Linux, localized to at least half a dozen languages.

The focus here is really on *automated*.  Whenever there's a new Tor
Browser version, we'd like to minimize manual steps for creating new
screencasts to the absolute minimum.

Here's our plan, and we'd appreciate your feedback on this:

 1. Set up three systems (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux) either as
virtual machines, using VirtualBox or VMware Fusion, or on a dedicated
triple-boot Mac Mini.

 2. Install Sikuli (http://www.sikuli.org/; thanks for Lunar for the
suggestion!) either directly on these machines or on the virtual
machine host or on a separate host in the same network.

 3. Write a Sikuli script for each operating system and language,
probably re-using large parts, to make all the necessary steps to
download, verify, and run Tor Browser.  This script may include steps
for preparing the system by changing its language and for cleaning up
afterwards.  Ideally, this script can easily be maintained whenever
Tor Browser changes.

 4. Record audio snippets in the various language that explain the
steps that will later be performed in the screencast.  Either include
these as part of the Sikuli script, or put them together separately
and add them to the recording later.

 5. Start a screen recorder and run the Sikuli script for all three
systems and all supported languages.

 6. Post-process the recording by cutting the video, attaching the
audio, and possibly adding text slides at beginning and end; hopefully
using scripts.

Again, the goal is to keep the overhead for recording a new set of
screencasts as low as possible.  If it takes days to do this, nobody
will do it, and we'll soon have outdated videos.

What do you think about this plan?  And do you have specific
suggestions for the single steps?

Thanks!

Cheers,
Karsten and Sherief
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