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GXAnim 0.30 (the "Well, You Could Play *Most* AVI's With 0.20a!" Release)  README File
(c) 1999 by Robert Warren

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Licensing Note

I just wanted to take this moment and mention here that while GXanim is released under
the General Public License (GPL) Agreement, the program on which it depends - Xanim - is
not.  Without getting into politics here, it really doesn't matter to me whether Mark Podlipec 
wishes to GPL Xanim or not - that is his right as the author, to decide the licensing conditions
he wishes to place on the fruit of his labor.  Personally, I appreciate the fact that we have a
Xanim at all.

That having been said, I want to reiterate that GXanim is GPL'ed code; you can read the actual
license agreement in the COPYING file.  GPL licensing conditions therefore apply.

XAnim is copyright 1991-1999 by Mark Podlipec.
GXAnim is copyright 1999 by Robert Warren.
 
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Project Status - April 30 1999

It worries me sometimes that in the last month, so many copies of this thing are floating
around out there.  The pressure, the pressure.. :)

I'm happy to say that - theoretically - most major problems with GXAnim have been fixed.
It should recognize any clip that XAnim recognizes.  You can restart clips.  You can set
preferences in an .rc file.  I don't plan on doing a subrelease this time, but you can never
know these things until the product hits the streets.

The database features are on hold for a bit.  So far there hasn't been serious demand for
them, on the level that there has been demand for other features.  Always ready to please,
we're focusing on the things people actually want before the things that would make the
author self-satisfied.

That having been said, if you have any ideas for improvements to GXAnim, please drop
me a line at aleris@iag.net.

Until next time..

- Rob
 
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Plea of the Week - 

There are a number of little jobs that I'd really like to farm out to people - GNOME
awareness, DnD support, and on and on.  I personally don't use GNOME, so it would
be sort of pointless for me to try writing GNOME code.. I wouldn't be able to test it.  If
anyone would like to contribute to making GXAnim GNOME-aware (*NOT* make GXAnim
a GNOME app.. just make it aware), please drop me a line.  I think we're beginning to
get coordinated on this one, and the more eyes that are on the code the better chance
we have of getting the job done right.

Thanks,

- Rob

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Building GXanim, development version 0.30 :

Something I feel very strongly about is to not load the user with lots of 
prerequisite libraries; you shouldn't have to go running all over the 
Internet looking for just the right combination of libraries and tools 
simply because I was too lazy to write code.

That having been said..

You need GTK+ 1.2.0, a C compiler, XLib and the usual assortment of libraries.  
Nothing real fancy.  If you have GTK and you were able to get your X server 
running, you probably have all you need.

Of course, you will also need a working Xanim binary loadable from your system path.
Xanim 2.70.70, 2.80.00 and 2.80.10 have all been successfully tested.

1.  Edit "Makefile" to liking.
2.  Type "make" or "make proper".
3.  Type "make install."
4.  If all goes well, the binary will be dropped into directory specified in Makefile.
5.  Execute at your leisure.

Note: "make complete" is the equivalent of "make proper ; make install".


Configuring :

*NEW IN VERSION 0.30* - GXAnim now uses an .rc file to specify program
configuration; the .rc filename defaults to ".gxanimrc" in the user's home directory.
There is actually a two-tiered configuration design - the .rc file and native program
settings in config.h that take effect if no .rc file can be found.  

The following are the config.h settings; read the sample .gxanimrc file included with
this package for information on .rc configuration.


TEST : Boolean value (TRUE/FALSE).  Turns on a primitive feedback mode
which will put the movie file details to the console.  I'm using it internally
to identify the file type and native size parameters.

SYNCFRAME : Boolean value (TRUE/FALSE).  Setting this to TRUE tells 
GXAnim that it can skip frames on the playback if necessary to keep the 
video in sync with the audio track.  Almost always should be TRUE.

PLAY_ON_START : Boolean value (TRUE/FALSE).  Setting this to TRUE
tells GXAnim to automatically start playing a clip if the filename is being
passed in on the command line.

VOLUME : Integer value 0-100.  XAnim's native default setting is 40.  This 
is the default volume level for all movies.

SIZEX, SIZEY : Integer values.  Default size setting for XAnim plays.
Generally ignored if NATIVE is set to TRUE.

SCALE : Integer value.  The default scaling mode.  0 = Normal, 1 = Half, 
2 = Double.
	
REPEAT : Integer value.  The default repeating mode.  0 = Normal end,
1 = Hold on last frame, 2 = Repeat endlessly.

DEFDIR : Kind of important. This is the default directory where GXAnim should 
look for movie files, enclosed in quotes.

XANIMPROG : This is the executable name of your XAnim binary.  This item is included 
to allow you to use different versions of XAnim; I used it to test the recent releases.

RCFILE : This is the name of the .rc file to look for in the user's home directory.  GXAnim
defaults to ".gxanimrc"; it is recommended that this is left alone.


Plans for Next Release :

Version : Development version 0.35
Estimated Release Date : May 14, 1999

There isn't so much a plan as there is a wishlist.  This is what I'm hoping for:

- GNOME awareness and Drag-and-Drop support
- Graphical pixmaps on the buttons
- Expanded prefs and .rc file
- Ability to do multiple simultaneous plays on a single GXAnim run
- Usual assortment of cleanup and bug fixes

Some may end up in 0.35.  We'll see.

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Final Plea :

Any patches, bug reports or ideas for enhancements would be greatly 
appreciated.  If you found some use for this program, please drop me a line 
at aleris@iag.net; it's always good to know one's children have found 
good homes.

Thanks,

Rob
April 30, 1999

Email : aleris@iag.net
Website : http://www.iag.net/~aleris
AOL IM : Aleris23


