This is the README for Performance.0.6d.NIHS.b.tar.gz [Download] [Browse] [Up]
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ANNOUNCEMENT:
Performance 0.6d for NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP version 3.3 - 4.2 (Quad-Fat)
30 September, 1997
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For fun I've compiled and packaged this legendary unfinished and never-before released NEXTSTEP 'information theatre' application from the long defunct Object Horizons, Inc. It is an incomplete pre-alpha release and is quite odd, although still amazing. Most features seem to work but there is no known definitive list of what is broken and what is not. The documentation is a mess. Even so, it is alot of fun and definitely useful as the most awe-inspiring screen-saver/dock extender known to mankind. The people who wrote it, whomever they were, were obviously quite inspired; and quite insane.
The distribution is available on both the next-ftp.peak.org and ftp.informatik.uni-muenchen.de ftp archives with filenames:
Quick tips about Performance:
'Actors' are simply .actor wrappers around one or more tiff images numbered sequentially (1.tiff, 2.tiff etc). You can drag the actors around on 'stage'. You can also drop files and folders onto them and the actors will hold them as 'attachments'. You can Alt-drag and Shift-drag attachments to copy or move them from actor to actor. You can drop background images into the color well in the 'cast bar' and can even have a color and image (with alpha channel info) simultaneously. You can drop actors directly on the cast bar to add them to a Performance document. Connections work well, but don't seem to get saved with your document. There are a few sample directors, but little is known about the actual API.
The animation is the best of any NEXTSTEP app ever and includes things like alpha-channel reach-through and even printing of the alpha channel(!). I have tested the distributed objects portion and it works well. To use it, make an actor a server on one machine and on another specify the service and put a '*' in the host field. You can then drop attachments on the server actor and they will pop up on the client across the net. Crazy.
DISCLAIMER:
This app is unfinished, undocumented, weird, cool, labyrinthine, sassy, lightning fast and totally unsupported. There is probably no one alive that will even pretend to know who created this thing. It will certainly never be fixed and we had all better hope the strange fellows that wrote it so many years ago have moved on to lion-taming or somesuch and don't get any crazy ideas about porting this gothic monstrosity to Rhapsody. I have only tested the binary under OPENSTEP 4.2 and NEXTSTEP 3.3 on m68K and Intel architectures. Good luck!
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.