This is the README for GrayAquarium.NIHS.bs.tar.gz [Download] [Browse] [Up]
This is the README file for a modified version of Brian Glaeske's Aquarium BackSpace module. The file GrayAquarium.tar.Z contains both source and a m68k/i386 binary for the module. As the name indicates, GrayAquarium is primarily designed for grayscale next machines. The fish in this distribution are in grayscale, and the drawing methods use a buffered background. For a 24 bit color system, buffering eats up 3 meg of memory, while for my 2 bit nextstation it is only 250K. (The original Aquarium BackSpace module does not use a buffered background.) BackSpace.app is a screensaver/background program written by Samuel G. Streeper of NeXT Computer Inc., and provided (for free!) as an example on the developer versions of nextstep 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2. Improvements: 1. Arbitrary background water color. Since a non-black background color is not a particularly good screen saver, I suggest that you use this feature in conjunction with the BackSpaceDuo hack of BackSpace that was posted on the cs.orst.edu and ftp.informatik.uni-muenchen.de next archives a little while back. With BackSpaceDuo, you can use GrayAquarium as a background and some other more appropriate BackSpace module as the true screen saver. 2. A simplified fish drawing routine eliminates strange looking fish when the fish overlap. This is where a buffered background is used. 3. Flipped Images are stored after the first flip. Your computer will not jerk to a stop every time a fish gets to a border and has to flip. 4. Lots of control over number, type, and speed of fish. El-cheapo postscript special effects too! Major Known Bugs: 1. On my grayscale nextstation, I can see the boxes that the fish are drawn in if I don't choose a `primary' (white, lightgray, darkgray, black) background color. I imagine that color machines will have a similar problem. 2. If you change the background color while the background is running, the background and the background in the boxes drawn around the fish don't initially match. You have to kill the background and start it up again. 3. Because I am using a buffered background, this module is a memory hog on color machines, as discussed above. 4. This code will only compile on 3.x machines. Please excuse me. Installation: Using Terminal.app (or even better, Stuart.app), uncompress (or gunzip) and then tar -xvf the file Aquaruim.tar.Z(gz). Change directory (cd) into the GrayAquaruim directory. Type `make install'. AquaruimView.BackModule will be created in your Library/BackSpaceViews directory. As a courtesy to those of you who have jumped on to the next bandwagon recently and have opted not to pay for the NeXT application kit, a copy of AquaruimView.BackModule is included with this distribution. I compiled it with the -arch m68k -arch i386 flags, so it should (crossing my fingers here) work for both above named architectures. Wishing the NeXT community a happy and fulfilling new year, Paul Griffin (pgriffin@phys.ufl.edu) Physics Department University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611 1/5/94 Fixed a couple of initialization bugs that showed up when I tried to use color fish. 1/9/94
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.