mirror of https://gitee.com/openkylin/aalib.git
84 lines
3.2 KiB
Plaintext
84 lines
3.2 KiB
Plaintext
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Why such library?
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=================
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I vote for simplicity. There are many problems of various kinds with
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video cards, low frequency monitors, crashing graphical apps... AA-lib
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IS the solution. It works on a terminal of any kind, it is fast and
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portable, it gives to you standard API. It gives to your old hardware
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more power!
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Supports: dos (VGA + MDA), stdio, curses, slang, X11, gpm, linux-console, OS/2
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What does this software do then ?
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=================================
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AA-lib is a low level gfx library just as many other libraries are.
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The main difference is that AA-lib does not require graphics device. In
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fact, there is no graphical output possible. AA-lib replaces those
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old-fashioned output methods with powerful ascii-art renderer. Now my
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linux boots with a nice penguin logo at secondary display (yes! Like
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Win95 does:) AA-lib API is designed to be similar to other graphics
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libraries. Learning a new API would be a piece of cake!
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Where to find AA-lib
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====================
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Just join our mailing list: `aa-project-discuss@lists.sourceforge.net'.
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Or just browse our homepage at `http://aa-project.sourceforge.net'. A ton of
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examples of ascii-art generated by aalib, pointers to other AA-Project
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resources etc.
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How this all started
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====================
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Once upon a time we've (my friend Kamil and I) bought two old
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Herculeses as secondary monitors. We didn't know for that time that our
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Diamond Stealths 64 cards would become obsolete soon. The next day we
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downloaded the logo of Linux Texas Users Group - nice silly penguin
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looking like a cowboy! It was so exciting logo ... we decided that we
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couldn't live without it and we wanted to see it at boot time as a logo
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on our secondary monitors. There was a small problem - Hercules doesn't
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support color graphics. So we decided to convert the penguin image to
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ascii art using netpbm tools.
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The output was very ugly because the converting algorithm was
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absolutly stupid. During the night I designed a new convertor that
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used a font bitmap to creat an aproximation table. The output wasn't
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very good since the algorithm wasn't tuned so well. Many months this
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small piece of code was waiting on my disc for the day "D". Meanwhile I
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started a new project XaoS (a fractal zoomer) with my friend Thomas.
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And then I got an idea: Ascii Art Mandelbrots! I was really impressed
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by the result! XaoS was faster, portable and looking much better than
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ever before. I found a new way to go ...
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AA-Project
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**********
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dT8 8Tb
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dT 8 8 Tb
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dT 8 8 Tb
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<PROJECT><PROJECT>
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dT 8 8 Tb
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dT 8 8 Tb
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Three goals of AA-Project:
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1. Port all important software (like Doom, Second Reality, X windows
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etc..) on AA-lib.
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2. Port AA-lib on all available platforms (mainly ZX-Spectrum and
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Sharp).
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3. Force IBM to start manufacturing MDA cards again.
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AA-project was started by Jan Hubicka. In that times just a few
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people knew about it. Then a new demo named BB has been relased to show
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the power of AA-lib technology. Now the project is freely available and
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anyone can help.
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