
WHAT IS DESI?

Desi is an interactive Motif-based tool that may be used for designing images.
It may be used to interactively position objects such as text or images onto
a background.  Desi was written to automate the tedious process of centering
text onto a background to be used as title screens of movies, overheads, or
35mm slides.  Desi has grown to provide other functions such as creating
transitions and recording capabilities.

Desi is built upon several software toolkits including X, Motif, Display
Postscript, the SelfMoving widget, the Shape extension, and the GLX widget.
Currently, there is only one platform that provides these necessary features
-- an SGI 4D series workstation running IRIX 4.0.1 or greater.

While it is not completely necessary, I find it useful to use the Utah
Raster Toolkit in conjunction with desi.  I recommend that the URT commands
already be in your path in order for Desi to be fully functional.  In all,
the following tools should already be available on your system for desi to
work flawlessly:

	- Utah Raster Toolkit (available at cs.utah.edu)
	- sgifade (available at ftp.arc.umn.edu:pub/movie-tools.tar.Z)
	- smart_vfr (available at ftp.arc.umn.edu:pub/movie-tools.tar.Z)
	- smart_load (available at ftp.arc.umn.edu:pub/vlan-1.0.tar.Z)

smart_vfr is necessary if you are using an SGI Video Framer and Abekas A60.
smart_load is necessary if you are using an SGI Video Framer and tape deck.

WHY NOT JUST USE SHOWCASE?

Showcase is a wonderful program.  Like Desi, Showcase is able to place
images and text in a window.  However, Showcase lacks image output
capabilities.  We needed a program that is tailored to quickly designing
an image containing text and sending it to a recording device.  Desi
serves this purpose very nicely.


The following files are included with this distribution:

BUILDING-DESI	building instructions
Desi.ad		appl defaults file (copy to /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Desi)
Desi.sgi	application icon (copy to /usr/lib/images/Desi.icon)
Desi.xpm	desi pixmap
Imakefile	you guessed it
README		this file
Selfmovine-4.0	directory containing source for selfmoving widget
Umsc		directory containing source for linked list routines
chest.sgi	sample image
clock.sgi	sample image
cmap		sample color map file
desi		executable binary for 4D series
desi.1		man page
desi.h		include file containing desi data structure
preanim		sample V-LAN script that is run before recording starts
postanim	sample V-LAN script that is run after recording is finished
precmd		sample V-LAN script that is run before each frame is displayed
postcm		sample V-LAN script that is run after each frame is displayed
sample.dzi	a sample Desi data file -- open this using the File->Open item
stringutils.psw	postscript routines read by pswrap
*.c		desi source code


If there are any questions about this software, contact me at my email address
shown below.  Desi is available at ftp.arc.umn.edu:pub/desi-1.3.2.tar.Z


	Wesley C. Barris (wes@msc.edu)
	Army High Performance Computing Research Center (AHPCRC)
	Minnesota Supercomputer Center, Inc.
