

Welcome to XAnim Revision 2.70.6.3!

This readme file covers some important topics in addition to describing
what all is contain in this archive.


You can also visit the XAnim Home Page:

	http://www.portal.com/~podlipec/home.html


1) CopyRight/Disclaimer
 
   XAnim Copyright (C) 1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996 by Mark Podlipec.
   All rights reserved.
 
   This software may be freely copied, modified and redistributed without
   fee for non-commerical purposes provided that this copyright notice is
   preserved intact on all copies and modified copies.
 
   There is no warranty or other guarantee of fitness of this software.
   It is provided solely "as is". The author(s) disclaim(s) all
   responsibility and liability with respect to this software's usage
   or its effect upon hardware or computer systems.


2) But Is It Free?

   Yes, for non-commercial use. No money, donations, etc are required.

   However, I do collect coins from around the World, so if you use
   and like XAnim and want to help motivate me to put more effort
   into it, you can send whatever coins you feel like donating to:

		Mark Podlipec
		15 Meadow Lane
		Shrewsbury MA 01545 USA

   Doesn't matter what the value or condition they are in. However,
   since I do have the majority of the 20th century US coins, I'm not
   as interested in them. Again, this is strictly voluntary.
   You can see the collection by visting:

	http://www.portal.com/~podlipec/coins.html
	

   For commercial use, a licensing agreement is required.  You
   may send enquiries to:

			podlipec@shell.portal.com


3) Now What?

   XAnim is distributed as source code and needs to be compiled on
   your machine before you'll be able to use it.  The "Compile_Help.doc"
   file provides step by step instructions on how to compile XAnim
   on unix machines.

   If you have a VMS machine, please see the "VMS_Help.doc" file. I
   apologize that the VMS instructions aren't as detailed, but
   I don't know much about that OS, yet.

   The "Compile_Errs.doc" file contains common compile errors and their
   solutions. 

   The "Problems.doc" file describes common warning and error messages
   that you might encounter while running XAnim.

   The "audio.readme" contains machine specific audio information.

   The file "Examples.doc" gives some common usage examples on running
   xanim. The "xanim.readme" or "xanim.man" page contians much more
   detailed description of all the options and has sections describing
   various features in depth.


3) What are all these other files?

   This archive contains the source to XAnim(all the .xbm, .h and .c files)
   and needs to be compiled on your machine in order to produce an
   XAnim executable. Below is a list and brief description of all
   the files in this archive.

        ---------------------------------
	README			-This file
        ---------------------------------
	*.xbm			-These files are bitmaps for the Remote Control.
	*.h			-These are part of the XAnim source code.
	*.c			-These are part of the XAnim source code.
	Imakefile		-This file is used to compile XAnim on machines
				 that have Imake setup correctly. 
				 see "Compile_Help.doc" for more info.
	Makefile 		-This file is used to compile XAnim on machines
				 that don't have Imake setup correctly.
				 see "Compile_Help.doc" for more info.
        ---------------------------------
	xanim.readme		-This is a text file describing all the options
				 and functionality of XAnim.
	xanim.man		-This is the unix man page equivalent of the
				 xanim.readme file.
	audio.readme		-Machine Specific Audio information.
	cinepak.readme		-This file describes how to add support for
				 the Radius Cinepak Video Codec to XAnim.
	indeo.readme		-This file describes how to add support for
				 the Radius Cinepak Video Codec to XAnim.
        ---------------------------------
	Compile_Help.doc	-Step by step instructions for compiling XAnim.
	Compile_Errs.doc	-Common compile errors and solutions.
	Problems.doc		-Common Error and Warning messages.
	Audio_Checklist.doc	-A Chart of which Audio Codecs work with which
				 hardware platform
	Formats.doc		-Detailed list of all the formats that
				 XAnim supports.
	Codecs.doc		-List of Quicktime and AVI Video and Audio
				 that I know about.
	Rev_History.doc		-Revision history of XAnim.
        WWW_Helper.doc		-Getting WWW Browsers to work with XAnim.
        ---------------------------------
	VMS_Help.doc		-Help file for VMS users.
	make.com		-This file is used to compile XAnim on
				 some VMS systems. See vms.help for more info.
	descrip.mms		-This file is used to compile XAnim on
				 some VMS systems. See vms.help for more info.
        ---------------------------------
	ijg.readme		-Since I based the XAnim JPEG code on the IJG
				 jpeg code, I need to distribute this file.

4) If you have a problem running or compiling that the documentation
   doesn't cover or if you find a bug  you can contact me at:

		podlipec@shell.portal.com

   Please include the following information in your email message:

	1) The rev of XAnim.
	2) Type of machine and OS.
	3) A description of the problem:
		+ including the type of animation.
	   	+ any options used.
		+ full error messages and/or xanim output.

5) XAnim Mailing List

   I have had a mailing list setup that anyone is free to join.
   It is used only for announcing new XAnim revisions as they come out.

   To Subscribe/Unsubscribe send email to:

           <b>xanim-request@shell.portal.com</b>

   with the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" in either the
   Subject or Message Body. It would also be best to include
   your email address since I've found a lot of mailer's do not
   include the correct reply address in the mail headers.

   Unfortunately, this part of the list maintenance isn't automated yet, so 
   bare with me as I usually make the additions every couple of weeks
   or sometimes just wait until the next XAnim release.

   Bug reports should still be sent to:

           <b>podlipec@shell.portal.com</b>

   I do attempt to reply to all the email messages I receive, however, I get
   quite a few with invalid return addresses. If you don't hear from me
   within a week, double check that your return address is correct.


6) Alright, What's New?  The Rev_History.doc should/will/has a complete
   list of what's new to this particular revision, but this section
   will list just the highlights.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.70.6.3  (02Aug96)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
        + AVI:  fixed bug with RGB depth 24  on depth 16 Displays.
        + IMA4: fixed bug that caused audio noise with quicktimes
                that used the stereo IMA4  audio codec.
        + MISC: Fixed colormap problem with -Cn and audio only files.
        + JPG:  JPEG 111111 fixed color bug with dither/+Cn option.
        + MISC: cleaned up type casting for functions that return ptrs
                to void *functions. Anyone know how to cast a
                function to return a pointer to an int function?
                I should add, compilers should be able to parse it. :^)
        + QT:   There's a new variation to the quicktime file format
                where the headers are stored up front(allows streaming
                of quicktime animations). Previous xanim revs had
                trouble reading this.

Mark
--
Mark Podlipec
podlipec@shell.portal.com
