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Mail Archives: djgpp/1997/10/01/01:01:43

Message-ID: <3431E6E8.5399@post.comstar.ru>
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 09:00:08 +0300
From: Dim Zegebart <zager AT post DOT comstar DOT ru>
Reply-To: zager AT post DOT comstar DOT ru
Organization: Comstar Ltd.
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Thomas Demmer <demmer AT LSTM DOT Ruhr-UNI-Bochum DOT De>
CC: DJGPP Mail List <djgpp AT delorie DOT com>
Subject: Re: BROWSER (Text renderer)
References: <34309308 DOT 3347 AT post DOT comstar DOT ru> <3430A7B7 DOT F52F9F49 AT LSTM DOT Ruhr-UNI-Bochum DOT De>

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Thomas Demmer wrote:
> 
> Dim Zegebart wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> > To things I want to offer :
> > 1. Use perfect aalib. Text mode renderer.
> > 2. LWP multitasker kernel.
> > I test it both under Allegro. Both fine.
> > I'm using it in my work and it saves me a lot of time.
> > Guys, don't rush with GUI - it is the very last thing
> > (I'm not meaning less important). There are a lot of other
> > things the need to implement.
> 
> I might be rather brain dead this morning, but what the heck
> is a text mode renderer? Could you please enlighten me?
> Thanks

-- 
Regards,
Dim Zegebart, 
Moscow Russia.
Ghostly basement : http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/pines/7817
DZCOMM - comm library for Allegro

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Why such library?
=================

   I vote for simplicity. There are many problems of various kinds with
video cards, low frequency monitors, crashing graphical apps... AA-lib
IS the solution. It works on a terminal of any kind, it is fast and
portable, it gives to you standard API. It gives to your old hardware
more power!

Supports: dos (VGA + MDA), stdio, curses, slang, X11, gpm, linux-console

What does this software do then ?
=================================

   AA-lib is a low level gfx library just as many other libraries are.
The main difference is that AA-lib does not require graphics device. In
fact, there is no graphical output possible. AA-lib replaces those
old-fashioned output methods with powerful ascii-art renderer. Now my
linux boots with a nice penguin logo at secondary display (yes! Like
Win95 does:) AA-lib API is designed to be similar to other graphics
libraries. Learning a new API would be a piece of cake!


How this all started
====================

   Once upon a time we've (my friend Kamil and I) bought two old
Herculeses as secondary monitors. We didn't know for that time that our
Diamond Stealths 64 cards would become obsolete soon. The next day we
downloaded the logo of Linux Texas Users Group - nice silly penguin
looking like a cowboy! It was so exciting logo ... we decided that we
couldn't live without it and we wanted to see it at boot time as a logo
on our secondary monitors. There was a small problem - Hercules doesn't
support color graphics. So we decided to convert the penguin image to
ascii art using netpbm tools.

   The output was very ugly because the converting algorithm was
absolutly stupid.  During the night I designed a new convertor that
used a font bitmap to creat an aproximation table. The output wasn't
very good since the algorithm wasn't tuned so well. Many months this
small piece of code was waiting on my disc for the day "D". Meanwhile I
started a new project XaoS (a fractal zoomer) with my friend Thomas.
And then I got an idea: Ascii Art Mandelbrots!  I was really impressed
by the result! XaoS was faster, portable and looking much better than
ever before. I found a new way to go ...


AA-Project
**********

                               dT8  8Tb
                              dT 8  8 Tb
                             dT  8  8  Tb
                          <PROJECT><PROJECT>
                           dT    8  8    Tb
                          dT     8  8     Tb
   Three goals of AA-Project:

  1. Port all important software (like Doom, Second Reality, X windows
     etc..) on AA-lib.

  2. Port AA-lib on all available platforms (mainly ZX-Spectrum and
     Sharp).

  3. Force IBM to start manufacturing MDA cards again.

   AA-project was started by Jan Hubicka. In that times just a few
people knew about it. Then a new demo named BB has been relased to show
the power of AA-lib technology. Now the project is freely available and
anyone can help.

Where to find AA-lib
********************

   Just join our mailing list: `aa AT horac DOT ta DOT jcu DOT cz'.

   All programs covered under AA-project can be obtained at
`ftp://ftp.ta.jcu.cz://pub/aa'.

   Or just browse our homepage at `http://www.ta.jcu.cz://aa'. A ton of
examples of ascii-art generated by aalib, pointers to other AA-Project
resources etc.

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