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Afterstep 2.0 Beta Includes XML Graphics System

Posted by Hemos on from the from-the-wayback-machine dept.

vaevictus writes "Afterstep just released its 2.0 Beta 1, after a long merge from its development branch. One of the most interesting new features is an XML-based graphics system, where any picture for any part of the WM can be a simple chunk of XML, which can do transformations, scaling, gradients and some other nice graphics mods. I've personally used this to cut my 1600x1200 image size from a 2.4mb PNG to a total of about 37kb. This leads to some very compact themes. If you're not familiar, AfterStep is one of the older WMs out there still in active development; all of you WindowMaker fans should check out the WM your WM branched off of, so long ago."

16 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. Already testing it now.. by Shivaji+Maharaj · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Looks pretty slick. But the window movement is bit shaky and the screen jitters sometimes.

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    1. Re:Already testing it now.. by killthiskid · · Score: 4, Interesting

      So I have a question... when I hear XML and graphics, and I instantly think SVG... does this format have anything to do with XML? Is it compatiable? Is there an XSL transformation you can do to turn it into SVG?

    2. Re:Already testing it now.. by sashav · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, its not compatible with SVG, and actually has different goal. Afterstep's XML images merely provides interface to powerfull functionality of libAfterImage, including image overlaying, scaling, tiling, cropping, and so on. It has many uses, such as compiling complex icons from simplier clipart, creating scaled down thumbnails, changing colors of images to match that of colorscheme, and so on.
      It is very usefull in different fields, such as web design, where you can create a script that generates all of the website's images from some clipart ( including text rendering ).
      Note that AfterStep does not need to keep multiple copies of the same image for different pourposes, which is what KDE does with its icon themes, etc.

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      Property of AfterStep Window Manager.
  2. mirror, maybe muahhaa by digitalsushi · · Score: 4, Funny

    i got some nice downloads off it, but here's a mirror.

    echo "http://digitalXuXhi.com/aX2/www.afterXtep.org/"|s ed s/X/s/g

    why'm i being a tool? cause only the people who want to visit will paste. mirrors take 10x the bandwidth with a link. so, if anyone translates my url into a link that gets modded over 1, i'll just remove the mirror :D buwahahaaaa

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  3. Windowmaker + AS by flikx · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Seriously folks, it's about time WindowMaker merges back with AfterStep. Dividing the great AS WM is the sole reason why KDE and GNOME dominate at this point.

    If the WindowMaker project rejoined AfterStep, AfterStep could actually become a viable window manager on it's own terms. As opposed to relying on the publicity of the GNUStep project, and WindowMaker for support in the first place.

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    1. Re:Windowmaker + AS by sashav · · Score: 5, Informative

      AfterStep 2.0 is a complete from scratch reimplementation, Its much more flexible then WM, its graphics subsistem is much more advanced and powerfull, resource management is better ( consider the fact that AS now compresses images in memory - something no other desktop environment could do).
      It was redesigned to be compliant with new window management specs, and as different from WM it is actually being developed right now.

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      Property of AfterStep Window Manager.
  4. Not being familiar with this... by I'm+a+racist. · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I've got a few questions.
    • Does the typical "XML bloat" become an issue?
    • And, is there much gained by using XML over some/any other scheme?
    • Is it very sensitive to errors, like most XML applications? If one XML file/tag gets corrupted, is the whole windowing system fucked until someone goes in on the command-line to fix it?
    • Overall, is it a good thing or a bad thing?
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  5. The good news by The+Bungi · · Score: 5, Funny
    I've personally used this to cut my 1600x1200 image size from a 2.4mb png to a total of about 37kb.

    That's the good news. The bad news is the WM now eats up 300MB of memory, instead of 30.

  6. SVG? by SynKKnyS · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why don't they use SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)? It would be neat to use a SVG editor to produce a theme.

  7. Re:XML Image format? by zulux · · Score: 5, Funny

    No.... like this!

    </picture type=jpeg>
    <data encoding=32_bit_little _endian_binary_written_in_an_acsii_string_in=32_li ttle_endian>
    1010101100101001010000111010101010100010001010101 0101010001010101......
    </data>
    </picture>

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  8. wait, this sounds familiar... by CoughDropAddict · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One of the most interesting new features is an XML-based graphics system, where any picture for any part of the WM can be a simple chunk of XML, which can do transformations, scaling, gradients and some other nice graphics mods.

    Oh, you mean like SVG?

    I guess this could be justified if it were significantly lighter-weight than SVG. Otherwise, why not reuse?

  9. Y DIY? by JB72 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'd like to write more on the topic but I'm currently busy trying to compile my own light-bulb. I'll have a beta ready in less than two years, or sooner if I can get some more help from the open source community.

    Linux rox!

    ps - don't tell anyone I actually spend 90% my free time in Windows playing embarrassing adolescent video games.

  10. Re:XML Image format? by vaevictus · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually you're not too far off...
    take a 17KB greyscale tile (defenseless elsie, in this case), and load it with this chunk of xml:

    <composite op=tint>
    <gradient width=$xroot.width height=$xroot.height colors="BaseDark BaseLight" angle=45/>
    <img tile=1 tint="#7Fffffff" src="tiles/DefenselessElsie"/>
    </composite>

    an d you've got a beautiful 1600x1200 image with a gradient that passes through the entire background , not just a single tile. It will also pull the colors for this gradient out of your current colorscheme, unless you would like to change some simple xml around.

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  11. Why switch from WindowMaker? by ikekrull · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So what does AfterStep do that WindowMaker doesn't? Its not very clear from the website.

    WindowMaker CVS has antialiased fonts, and with a little bit of work on icons and tile backgrounds, my desktop looks great.

    The menu editor/prefs utility is easy to use, the clip's desktop switching is perfect for what I want, theres nothing obvious about AfterStep that would make me want to switch back.

    WindowMaker + GNOME apps/libs + ROX-Filer make up my ideal GUI environment.

    As far as I know, theyre both written in C, as opposed to Objective-C for GNUStep, they both attempt to mimic some or all aspects of NeXTSTEP, and WindowMaker was created because the Afterstep crew was too anal about incorporating features that did not appear in the original NeXT system.

    So now theyre adding features to Afterstep - dumping the whole idea behind what AfterStep was - 'Its strictly a clone of NeXTSTEP', and somehow this is a step (STEP?) forward?

    So why switch from WindowMaker, when AfterStep is clearly just playing catch-up now?

    That being said, there are a few rough edges in Window Maker, so perhaps competition from AfterStep will smooth them out.

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    1. Re:Why switch from WindowMaker? by sashav · · Score: 5, Informative

      Its not just the text antialiasing, although AfterStep 2 can antialias both TTF fonts and good old X bitmap fonts. AfterSTep has a very powerfull graphics engine with things like in-memory image compression, high quality image rendering with dithering, high quality and fast scaling, 15 ways to overlay image on top of each other (similar to GIMP) Hue Saturation Value manipulation, etc. Note that all of it is very fast and memory efficient.

      Now AfterStep's desktop model is much more flexible then Window Maker's

      Menu editor/prefs thingy is probably the only absent thing in AS 2, but I'm working on it.

      Originally AS was anal about being too NeXT strict, which prompted creation of WM, and if you'd look into possibilities of WM's titlebar and frame decoration configuration, and compare it to AfterStep - you'll see enough advantage in AS.

      both written in C, but let me tell ya, that you don't want to be messing around with WM's codebase - it sucks.

      AfterSTep does not plays catch up - in 2.0 version we have several things that no other desktop environment has - XML images, Menus adjusting to use pattern, Colorschemes, to name just few.

      --
      Property of AfterStep Window Manager.
  12. Re:Afterstep site... by sashav · · Score: 5, Informative

    We don't have too many ppl working on AS.
    I mean I do all the development, clipart design, support, and pretty much everything else.
    I don't have no time whatsoever to work on web site, and it was rather dead for quite a while, and only recently got revived by Remmy. One of the purposes of releasing this beta was to attract more ppl to the project, and get some help.

    You can take a look at my devel site on SourceForge:
    http://afterstep.sf.net
    and screenshots on
    http://afterstep.sf.net/afterstep20beta/

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