GXAnim 0.50

FAQ by Robert Warren (c) 1999



What is GXAnim?

Why did you write GXAnim?

Why does it seem that GXAnim is always in beta?

Why are releases always late?

How can I make GXAnim work with ESD sound?

Are you planning on writing GNOME support into GXAnim at some point?

Why are all the buttons text rather than pixmapped?

Why does God kill puppies?

GXAnim won't play my clip. Why?

Is GXAnim purely a Linux app?

Will you email me a tar.gz/RPM/ZIP/Debian/flat tar/etc. package?

Why BZip2 for packaging?

Why isn't there a slidebar on the control panel, to allow moving back and forth in the clip?

I download the GXAnim package and try to bunzip2 it, but it tells me that the file is corrupt.
I've tried it again and again and get the same result. What gives?

I have a feature request. Can I use video players other than XAnim with this interface?



What is GXAnim?

GXAnim is a graphical frontend for the XAnim movie player program, written with GTK. It
allows the user to quickly locate a Quicktime/AVI/MPEG file, play it and perform basic
VCR-like actions upon the playing clip. Since it's initial release in March of 1999, it has
evolved from a crude little crank-and-kill program into a useful little crank-and-kill program. :)



Why did you write GXAnim?

Because I got tired of calling XAnim from the command line all the time.

Actually, GXAnim evolved from a small set of shell scripts I had written for my own use,
which kept a small index of my Babylon 5 Quicktime clip collection and acted as a
frontend for XAnim. I wrote GXAnim to consolidate functioning and to learn a bit about
programming with GTK.

Since then the thing has been slowly evolving it's way to the MCP from Tron.



Why does it seem that GXAnim is always in beta?

Actually, it's in alpha. I was once told by an opinion I trust that beta starts when new
functions stop and you're in pure debug mode.

GXAnim isn't meant to be a fully functional program that appeals to everyone; if I have my way,
it will always be a *little* broken. The moment everything works is the moment it stops maturing
as an app. Also, I'm not above releasing source that I know only half-works. Often enough I get ideas
from folks who look at the code and go in completely different directions than I have with it.
More often, hanging my ass out like that just gives me motivation to fix the damned thing. :)



Why are releases always late?

Because I'm lousy at projecting completion dates. Also, real life sometimes intervenes.



How can I make GXAnim work with ESD sound?

GXAnim does not directly support ESD; to the best of my knowledge neither does XAnim.
A reasonable workaround seems to be to use the "esddsp" wraparound in the XAnim binary
field of the preferences screen - "esddsp xanim" rather than "xanim".



Are you planning on writing GNOME support into GXAnim at some point?

I've had a lot of requests to make GXAnim a GNOME-only application, on the grounds that
GNOME is lacking a quality video program. This just flat-out ain't going to happen.

I wouldn't mind having some GNOME-awareness in at some point, but it's not a serious
priority right now. GXAnim will *never* be a GNOME-only application. (as in, "over my
dead rotting blue corpse".)



Why are all the buttons text rather than pixmapped?

Originally because I hadn't gotten around to it. Then because I couldn't find a really nice
set of graphics for the buttons. Finally, I just realized that it was window dressing, didn't
add any real value to the program and required more code complexity than it was worth.
So, for the time being, no graphical buttons.

However, if anyone wishes to prove me wrong by coding a GXAnim version with buttons,
please feel free. I'm always open to being wrong.



Why does God kill puppies?

I love asking this question to people. Usually it throws them off balance. Until about a year
ago I had never gotten a real answer to this question. Finally this woman I worked with, real
nice suburban middle-aged type, answered without missing a beat: "Because they're cute
and cuddly and God wants them all to himself."

Just sick enough to be funny.



GXAnim won't play my clip. Why?

Could be one of any number of reasons. Maybe XAnim doesn't support the format.
Perhaps GXAnim is broken. Perhaps it isn't a movie clip at all but an .mp3 or something
similar. Look into it. My first advice would be to verify that XAnim plays the clip by itself.

If you can get XAnim to play it and GXAnim still doesn't, then type this at the command
line:

xanim +Zv +v +f "clipname.mov" > clipstats.txt

where "clipname.mov" is the filename of your clip. *Please* email me the "clipstats.txt"
file that has just been created.

(note: GXAnim versions earlier than 0.35 had problems recognizing some clips, particularly
AVI and MPEG. I think these problems have been fixed.)



Is GXAnim purely a Linux app?

No. GXAnim is written to be POSIX-compliant and should be completely usable on any
UNIX platform that can run GTK and XAnim.

I have recently been told that GXAnim 0.40 runs well on Solaris. This is one of my goals for
GXAnim - to run on any Unix platform, not just the latest Linux desktop.



Will you email me a tar.gz/RPM/ZIP/Debian/flat tar/etc packaging of GXAnim?

In a word, no. I roll one package, and post one package. Currently GXAnim is being
distributed via tar.bz2; you will need a recent cut of bzip2 to use GXAnim.

With the number of different packaging systems available in the Unix world today, I came to the
conclusion that I had a choice between releasing a single package or releasing a dozen
different ones. I chose to release one package that doesn't ask too much of the user.

At the same time, I don't distribute binaries. If you can't follow the instructions in the
README file, the program will just confuse you anyway.

Deal with it.



Why BZip2 for packaging?

Frankly, because it has a great compression ratio and it's GPL.



Why isn't there a slidebar on the control panel, to allow moving back and forth in the clip?

Because XAnim doesn't have a remote window feature allowing the user to directly skip to
a particular frame, nor does there seem to be an way to dynamically query XAnim for the
current timeframe or frame without dragging performance way, way down. These two
options would be a necessary first step to slidebar frame positioning.

There might be a shortcut around all this. I'm working on it. In the meantime, feel free to petition
Marc to put these features in XAnim. Just *please* be civil. :)



I get a "file corrupt" with I try to bunzip2 the package. What gives?

What are you using to download? Twice in the last several months I've gotten reports from Europe and
South America of this problem. It was finally tracked back to an undetermined version of Netscape
running in Windows that was converting what it saw as C/R's into LF/CR's, in effect adding more
characters to the file. Try using a different browser, preferably on a different platform.



Can I use non-XAnim players with GXAnim?

No. But there are plans for a project to handle this. GXAnim will probably be eventually
be absorbed in that project, Canvas. If you want more information or if you'd like to help
drop me a line.



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