Novell is well aware that the driving force behind linux on the desktop will be availability of vertical applications with a standard set of essential business applications. Of course Novell is going to add development effort to the Mozilla/OpenOffice/Evolution combo. That combo is widely recognized as the Linux business application package. Novell will follow the momentum those names already have, to be sure.
The default desktop is inconsequential as long as both frameworks are supported. It would be prudent for Novell to keep the options open for developers to decide on which framework to use, as far as desktop linux is concerned. That's why I doubt any desktop environment would be dropped.
This isn't any kind of documentary on the evolution of linux. It's really just a cool hack that one guy wrote probably in a couple of weekends using an unpopular, but highly regarded, language.
You can always download the source and create your own mpeg with the proper progression, tho'.
You're missing the three fourths of what the demo scene is all about. Even the grandfather of the modern demo, the C=64 scroller, wasn't about performance but about the creativity, skill and advertisment of the cracker who opened up a game for disk trading without the xeroxed manuals.
The demoscene now is a collaborations of multiple disciplines to make something that, ulitimately, is cool to watch. And that's what that DVD is. Something that will be cool to watch.
but crappy design and piss-poor implementation is everywhere, not just in software.
When was the last time a vehicle was recalled because of improper wiring?
The last time an airplane went down because of bad rivet placement
Have you ever actually looked at the frame you house was built on during construction? I've seen frames with studs spaced out 30%-50% wider than the building codes spec out.
K5's front page has a picture of a very famous bridge. (Who knew harmonics would do that?) And I bet no one, even the engineers themselves, thought anything was wrong with it 5 minutes prior that bridge came crumbling down.
The devil is in the details. Don't assume that the next bridge you drive over is an elegant peice of engineering, I assure you it too has it's hacks, brute force tactics and hidden weaknesses. But like software those ugly pieces are hidden from the user.... right untill the point of failure.
Likewise with the people who can seriously suggest that the GIMP is a workable replacement for Photoshop, which is a laughable notion for anything except web graphics.
Well not really laughable, but definitly not a viable replacement for some commercial use, I have to agree. The thing that gets to me about your post is that you just don't seem to realize these are small size development teams that produce these applications for linux. There are just a handfull of KOffice developers while in a commercial setting there would be whole developments departments and teams dedicated eight hours a day to just one application of an office package. Comparing one against the other us as unfair as comparing a Ferrari fundedFormula One car to the '67 Camaro with the rebuilt 427 your neigbor just dropped in. That said the very fact that some linux applications are actually competitive to commercial appz is awe inspiring, to say the least.
The other thing that gets me about your post is that it's always the easiest to make wish-list or spot "the right direction". I'm sorry but unless your contrubiting, keep those thoughts to yourself or post them where developers can view them,/. already gets way too much of that and most developers don't read/. (if you dont beleive me look and the lack of posts in the developers only articles).
end rand...
Commercial solutions are on thier way. Hancom is releasing what is seamingly (pre-emptive-screen-shot-only-assumption) a robust office package for linux, windows, mac os X. If you're looking for a microsoft alternative you may want to give them a shot.
Can someone *please* come up with a spec for overhauling font management in X? Overhauling X in general? Just steal display PDF from Apple/Adobe?
Xrender is an extension to the X protocol implemented in XFree86 that is resposible for the anti-aliasing in Qt/KDE. It supports Porter/Duff operations for image composition (true alpha blending) and elements found in DisplayPDF (paths, transformations, etc...). A good introduction to Xrender ideas and why the current X protocol was "blundered" are here. I especially like the part:
At one meeting, members of the X11 team looked around the table and discovered that not one of them had any clue about splines. Instead of doing something wrong, they left them out.
That pretty much sums up the hackery that is the X Window System.
Freetype (and thus X) can support hinting. The reasons you dont see it is because of nasty pantents, explained here
Freetype crew explains:
However, the source code for the bytecode interpreter is still available and can be toggled on at compile time, for those that want to use it anyway (because they purchased a license from Apple, or because they're in a country where the patents do not apply, etc..)
If this is the case then simply go to..
cd pathToFreetype2Code/include/freetype/config
Open the ftoption.h file and find the line that has...
#undef TT_CONFIG_OPTION_BYTECODE_INTERPRETER
Change `undef' to `define' and you should be good to go.
There are some AA fonts in KDE that make me feel like I supposed to be wearing glasses, I'm just not at the time.
100% anti-aliasing on your screen is probably the ailment. If you have anti-aliasing on smaller fonts your eyes will strain trying to "focus" on the text. You might want to look into configuring Xft (the library rendering the type) to not anti-alias text within a certain size threshold. Documentation is here
Specs are a way to standardize a platform so that multiple efforts can strive for a common goal. Specifications, however, do not impede on proactive donations of GPL/BSD software.
In any case the corporate adoption of GNU/Linux as a viable platform should help spread copyleft fever. This is a Good Thing.
Re:bah -- qt the "de facto" standard?
on
Qt for Mac
·
· Score: 1
Surely you can appreciate that a LGPL-equivalent license is more reasonable for licenses than the GPL (and its close kin)?
Yes. It's more reasonable if you are a commercial entity with proprietary code but, IMHO, if that's the case then you should pay for the licensing. I would prefer to see Trolltech get monetary compensation to support R&D on a GPL'd package than to see company XYZ profit off the fruits of labor of many open source hackers without giving _one_line_ of code back to the community. This is a bad thing and goes against why _free_ software was written in the first place.
Re:bah -- qt the "de facto" standard?
on
Qt for Mac
·
· Score: 1
Jeeesus Christ, every time there's news about Qt someone takes a GTK shit. Have you ever taken the time out to code in both API's. C++ as a language is bloated yes, but there are constructs there that go hand in hand with GUI programming.
Use them.
C is small simple and elegant... to a point, but if tell me that GTK/C coding is simpler than that Qt/C++ coding your ass is going to get struck by lightning. In GTK you have to remember what typecast macro to use just to pass a this pointer, (something implicit in C++), callbacks are not typesafe, (Qt signals and slots are), ohh and don't forget to namespace those methods with gtk_widget.
I'm just bitter... if GTK hackers can produce something as bad ass as Lopster
then GTK definitly has it's place, but if Stallman weenies are going to bash KDE/Qt then expect the same from the other side of the fence.
Qt Embedded is, as the name suggests, mainly for embedded environments (meaning it's small).
The features are nice but it wouldn't be able to support the most simple hardware acceleration features (like blitting) and such because it only interfaces to a dumb block of memory, the framebuffer. This is evident when actually running QtE...
Flicker time!
Even in just 640x480 the tearing and flicker stick out like a sore thumb. . . and that's with the matrox optimizations compiled in.
A project that seems to be promising is the GGIKGI combo. GGI for the graphics library and KGI for the hardware acceleration/abstraction. If the Qt library was ported to GGI then there would be a real posibility of having an X'less, accelerated desktop for linux.
Wouldn't this higher level library (Qt) be a bit easier for people to get into game programming?
There are already plenty of games that have been programmed using the Qt API, just look at the collection of games that are distributed with KDE. Using Qt is fine if you're going to write a game thats along the lines of minesweeper or, if your really bold, commander keen. But if you want to write a game that's more involved with extra bells and whistles, it would actually be easier to use something like SDL which is a high level abstraction to multimedia functionality that is common to/required by game programming.
The OpenGL widget that is offered by the Qt library exposes opengl functionality but does not offer a high level interface. You still have to call glVertex3f()... there is no rotateBox():(
It seems to me that Konqueror hits 2,3,4,5,6,13,15,16(SMB) and 18, of the Nautilus wish list. Mind you that this is without commercial backing (and with a clear conscience now that Qt has been GPL'd).
Maybe eazel could write an IO slave for Konqueror that can access the eazel services, that could increase thier potential revenues, no?
Slashdot Mirror
Novell is well aware that the driving force behind linux on the desktop will be availability of vertical applications with a standard set of essential business applications. Of course Novell is going to add development effort to the Mozilla/OpenOffice/Evolution combo. That combo is widely recognized as the Linux business application package. Novell will follow the momentum those names already have, to be sure.
The default desktop is inconsequential as long as both frameworks are supported. It would be prudent for Novell to keep the options open for developers to decide on which framework to use, as far as desktop linux is concerned. That's why I doubt any desktop environment would be dropped.
This isn't any kind of documentary on the evolution of linux. It's really just a cool hack that one guy wrote probably in a couple of weekends using an unpopular, but highly regarded, language.
You can always download the source and create your own mpeg with the proper progression, tho'.
Not bad for about 5k lines of commented code. The largest source file is the ML grammer for the C language.
For their pure expressive power I don't see why FP languages get more respect. But I guess folks like Graham would mind that.
You're missing the three fourths of what the demo scene is all about. Even the grandfather of the modern demo, the C=64 scroller, wasn't about performance but about the creativity, skill and advertisment of the cracker who opened up a game for disk trading without the xeroxed manuals.
The demoscene now is a collaborations of multiple disciplines to make something that, ulitimately, is cool to watch. And that's what that DVD is. Something that will be cool to watch.
I wonder if a collaboration between aphex and some coders to produce a demo would ever happen.
Eh.. probably not.
I wonder why Jega was never signed onto Warp.
Finally got to see the content list.
Yes! I can finally watch Square again. One of the finest 256 color demos ever produced.
I'm also glad to see Moral Hard Candy (my personal favorite), that makes up for KKowboy's absence.
I would have prefered to see more of the stuff from the glory days when Hornet.net was up but I'm still definitely going to purchase this.
Screw that "Sound and Motion" MTV crap. This is real mindtrip material by real artists, musicians and coders.
Second Reality - Future Crew (aka Remedy, aka MadOnion)
303 - Acme (Statix & Vic)
Jizz - The Black Lotus
KKowboy - Purple & Blasphemy
Don't forget about flying snot and flying text.
but crappy design and piss-poor implementation is everywhere, not just in software.
When was the last time a vehicle was recalled because of improper wiring?
The last time an airplane went down because of bad rivet placement
Have you ever actually looked at the frame you house was built on during construction? I've seen frames with studs spaced out 30%-50% wider than the building codes spec out.
K5's front page has a picture of a very famous bridge. (Who knew harmonics would do that?) And I bet no one, even the engineers themselves, thought anything was wrong with it 5 minutes prior that bridge came crumbling down.
The devil is in the details. Don't assume that the next bridge you drive over is an elegant peice of engineering, I assure you it too has it's hacks, brute force tactics and hidden weaknesses. But like software those ugly pieces are hidden from the user.... right untill the point of failure.
Likewise with the people who can seriously suggest that the GIMP is a workable replacement for Photoshop, which is a laughable notion for anything except web graphics.
Well not really laughable, but definitly not a viable replacement for some commercial use, I have to agree. The thing that gets to me about your post is that you just don't seem to realize these are small size development teams that produce these applications for linux. There are just a handfull of KOffice developers while in a commercial setting there would be whole developments departments and teams dedicated eight hours a day to just one application of an office package. Comparing one against the other us as unfair as comparing a Ferrari fundedFormula One car to the '67 Camaro with the rebuilt 427 your neigbor just dropped in. That said the very fact that some linux applications are actually competitive to commercial appz is awe inspiring, to say the least.
The other thing that gets me about your post is that it's always the easiest to make wish-list or spot "the right direction". I'm sorry but unless your contrubiting, keep those thoughts to yourself or post them where developers can view them, /. already gets way too much of that and most developers don't read /. (if you dont beleive me look and the lack of posts in the developers only articles).
end rand...
Commercial solutions are on thier way. Hancom is releasing what is seamingly (pre-emptive-screen-shot-only-assumption) a robust office package for linux, windows, mac os X. If you're looking for a microsoft alternative you may want to give them a shot.
Can someone *please* come up with a spec for overhauling font management in X? Overhauling X in general? Just steal display PDF from Apple/Adobe?
Xrender is an extension to the X protocol implemented in XFree86 that is resposible for the anti-aliasing in Qt/KDE. It supports Porter/Duff operations for image composition (true alpha blending) and elements found in DisplayPDF (paths, transformations, etc...). A good introduction to Xrender ideas and why the current X protocol was "blundered" are here. I especially like the part:
That pretty much sums up the hackery that is the X Window System.
Freetype (and thus X) can support hinting. The reasons you dont see it is because of nasty pantents, explained here
Freetype crew explains:
However, the source code for the bytecode interpreter is still available and can be toggled on at compile time, for those that want to use it anyway (because they purchased a license from Apple, or because they're in a country where the patents do not apply, etc..)
If this is the case then simply go to..
cd pathToFreetype2Code/include/freetype/config
Open the ftoption.h file and find the line that has...
#undef TT_CONFIG_OPTION_BYTECODE_INTERPRETER
Change `undef' to `define' and you should be good to go.
There are some AA fonts in KDE that make me feel like I supposed to be wearing glasses, I'm just not at the time.
100% anti-aliasing on your screen is probably the ailment. If you have anti-aliasing on smaller fonts your eyes will strain trying to "focus" on the text. You might want to look into configuring Xft (the library rendering the type) to not anti-alias text within a certain size threshold. Documentation is here
Specs are a way to standardize a platform so that multiple efforts can strive for a common goal. Specifications, however, do not impede on proactive donations of GPL/BSD software.
Convergence Integrated Media, one of the companies involved, is contributing to Free Software via DirectFB which seems to be quite impressive.
In any case the corporate adoption of GNU/Linux as a viable platform should help spread copyleft fever. This is a Good Thing.
Surely you can appreciate that a LGPL-equivalent license is more reasonable for licenses than the GPL (and its close kin)?
Yes. It's more reasonable if you are a commercial entity with proprietary code but, IMHO, if that's the case then you should pay for the licensing. I would prefer to see Trolltech get monetary compensation to support R&D on a GPL'd package than to see company XYZ profit off the fruits of labor of many open source hackers without giving _one_line_ of code back to the community. This is a bad thing and goes against why _free_ software was written in the first place.
Jeeesus Christ, every time there's news about Qt someone takes a GTK shit. Have you ever taken the time out to code in both API's. C++ as a language is bloated yes, but there are constructs there that go hand in hand with GUI programming.
Use them.
C is small simple and elegant... to a point, but if tell me that GTK/C coding is simpler than that Qt/C++ coding your ass is going to get struck by lightning. In GTK you have to remember what typecast macro to use just to pass a this pointer, (something implicit in C++), callbacks are not typesafe, (Qt signals and slots are), ohh and don't forget to namespace those methods with gtk_widget.
I'm just bitter... if GTK hackers can produce something as bad ass as Lopster then GTK definitly has it's place, but if Stallman weenies are going to bash KDE/Qt then expect the same from the other side of the fence.
Qt Embedded is, as the name suggests, mainly for embedded environments (meaning it's small).
The features are nice but it wouldn't be able to support the most simple hardware acceleration features (like blitting) and such because it only interfaces to a dumb block of memory, the framebuffer. This is evident when actually running QtE...
Flicker time!
Even in just 640x480 the tearing and flicker stick out like a sore thumb. . . and that's with the matrox optimizations compiled in.
A project that seems to be promising is the GGI KGI combo. GGI for the graphics library and KGI for the hardware acceleration/abstraction. If the Qt library was ported to GGI then there would be a real posibility of having an X'less, accelerated desktop for linux.
The Gathering isn't meant to be so much a "gamer" party as it is supposed to be for the Demo Scene .
Good examples of what demos are are here if you have a win32 or DOS box around.
More parties like Mekka, Assembly, The Party and others exist.
I've always wondered what a color photo of a pre-industrial-age sky would look like.
Just a thought.
Wouldn't this higher level library (Qt) be a bit easier for people to get into game programming?
There are already plenty of games that have been programmed using the Qt API, just look at the collection of games that are distributed with KDE. Using Qt is fine if you're going to write a game thats along the lines of minesweeper or, if your really bold, commander keen. But if you want to write a game that's more involved with extra bells and whistles, it would actually be easier to use something like SDL which is a high level abstraction to multimedia functionality that is common to/required by game programming.
The OpenGL widget that is offered by the Qt library exposes opengl functionality but does not offer a high level interface. You still have to call glVertex3f() ... there is no rotateBox() :(
It seems to me that Konqueror hits 2,3,4,5,6,13,15,16(SMB) and 18, of the Nautilus wish list. Mind you that this is without commercial backing (and with a clear conscience now that Qt has been GPL'd).
Maybe eazel could write an IO slave for Konqueror that can access the eazel services, that could increase thier potential revenues, no?