Clutter 0.8 README.
===================

Clutter it an open source software library for creating fast, visually
rich and animated graphical user interfaces. 

Clutter currently requires:

  * GLib >= 2.14.0
  * PangoCairo >= 1.18
  * OpenGL >= 1.4, OpenGL ES 1.1 or OpenGL ES 2.0
  * GLX, SDL, WGL or an EGL Implementation

The official website is:                
   http://www.clutter-project.org
The Clutter blog is at
   http://www.clutter-project.org/blog
To subscribe to the Clutter mailing list, send mail to: 
   clutter+subscribe@o-hand.com 
The official mailing list archive is:   
   http://lists.o-hand.com/clutter/
New bug page on Bugzilla:               
   http://bugzilla.o-hand.com/enter_bug.cgi?product=Clutter

Clutter is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
License, version 2.1 or (at your option) later.

INSTALLATION
============

See the INSTALL file. Info on specific Clutter options;

 --enable-debug=[no/minimum/yes]
	Turn on debugging (default=yes):
	  yes: All glib asserts, checks and runtime clutter verbose messages. 
          minimum: Just glib cast checks and runtime clutter verbose messagaes.
          no: No glib asserts or checks and no runtime clutter verbose messages
	      (Only really of use in extreme performance cases)

 --enable-maintainer-flags=[no/yes]
        Use strict compiler flags (default=no)

 --enable-gtk-doc        
	use gtk-doc to build API documentation (default=no). Requires gtk-doc 
	present on system

 --enable-manual=[no/yes]
        Build application developers manual. Requires jw and xmlto binaries.
	Presently incomplete.

  --without-fpu           
	Assume target hardware has no floating point unit. Useful only
	for embedded targets such as ARM.

  --with-flavour=[glx/eglx/eglnative/sdl/osx/win32]
        Select the Clutter backend: (default=glx)

	  glx:  Fully featured GLX backend. Using Open GL.

	  eglx: EGL/Open GL ES backend for EGL on X windows implementations

	  eglnative:
                EGL/Open GL ES backend on 'native windowing system' - i.e
		raw framebuffer. Expects the EGL implementation to provide
                a createNativeWindow() call. Also it optionally supports
		tslib for touchscreen events.

	  sdl:  Basic SDL backend, using Open GL. Should provide portability
	        to Windows and possibly other OS's.

          osx:  OS X backend. (experimental)

          win32:
                Microsoft Windows(tm) WGL backend (experimental)

          fruity:
                Apple iPod Touch(tm)/iPhone(tm) backend (experimental)

  --with-imagebackend=[gdk-pixbuf/quartz/internal]
        Select the image loading backend used by COGL

          gdk-pixbuf: Depend on gdk-pixbuf-2.0 (default for the glx, eglx,
                      eglnative, sdl, win32 flavours and recommended)

          quartz:     Depend on CoreGraphics (default for the osx flavour)

          internal:   Internal JPEG and PNG loader. Should only be used
                      for testing on new platforms

  --with-gles=[1.1/2.0]
        Select the GLES version (for EGL backends) (default=1.1)

  --with-json=[internal/check]
        Select the JSON-GLib copy to use (default=internal)

          internal: Use the internal copy of JSON-GLib for ClutterScript

          check: Check for the existence of a system copy of JSON-GLib
                 and if it is available, make Clutter depend on it

VERSIONING
==========

Clutter uses the common "Linux kernel" versioning system, where
even-numbered minor versions are stable and odd-numbered minor
versions are development snapshots.

Different Minor versions break both API and ABI but are parallel
installable. The same Minor version with differing Micro version is
expected to be ABI compatible with other micro versions. Though this
is not guarenteed, especially for odd numbered minor releases, we'll
try our very hardest (promise).

The micro version indicates the origin of the release: even micro
numbers are only used for released archives; odd micro numbers are
only used on the SVN repository.

HACKING
=======

If you want to hack on and improve Clutter, check the contained TODO
file for pending tasks, and HACKING for general coding guidelines.

BUGS
====

Bugs should be reported to the OpenedHand Bugzilla at:

  http://bugzilla.o-hand.com/enter_bug.cgi?product=Clutter

You will need an account.

In the report you should include:
* what system you're running Clutter on;
* which version of Clutter you are using;
* which version of GLib and OpenGL you are using;
* which video card and which drivers you are using, including output of
  glxinfo and xdpyinfo;
* how to reproduce the bug.

If you cannot reproduce the bug with one of the tests that come with Clutter
source code, you should include a small test case displaying the bad
behaviour.

If the bug exposes a crash, the exact text printed out and a stack trace
obtained using gdb are greatly appreciated.


PATCHES
=======

Patches should be submitted using Bugzilla. Patches fixing a bug should be
attached to the bug report; patches for new features or for fixing bugs not
yet reported should be attached to a newly opened bug. Patches should always
be in the unified diff format, using:

  diff -Nuarp clutter.source clutter.patched > clutter-patch.diff

If diffing against the SVN repository, you should use:

  svn diff --diff-cmd=diff -x -Nuarp > clutter-patch.diff


RELEASE NOTES
=============

Relevant information for developers with existing Clutter applications
wanting to port to newer releases (See NEWS for general new feature info).

Release Notes for Clutter 0.8
-------------------------------

* The COGL GL wrapper API has been completely overhauled and now
  contains many new features including new greatly improved texture
  abstractions (slicing, mipmapping, deformations etc, greatly
  simplifying ClutterTexture), image loading and abstraction, path
  based primitive drawing, clipping, and improved FBO and shader
  support. It is now also fully documented.

* GL Texture Rectangle ext is no longer used, the regular 2D NPOTS
  extension is preffered instead but not required. 

* Clutter now has basic suppport for multiple input devices assuming
  the backend supports it (currently X11 based via XInput and Fruity
  backends). New API supporting this includes
  clutter_event_get_device_id, clutter_get_input_device_for_id,
  clutter_grab_pointer_for_device & clutter_ungrab_pointer_for_device.

  XInput support needs to be explicitly enabled at runtime by calling
  clutter_x11_enable_xinput () before clutter_init. clutter_x11_has_xinput () 
  can then be called after to check if XInput extension present and use-able.

* The functions that return the transformed position of an actor have
  been renamed to be more explicit about it:

    clutter_actor_get_abs_position - clutter_actor_get_transformed_position
    clutter_actor_get_abs_size     - clutter_actor_get_transformed_size

  Their behaviour has not been changed.

* To increase portability, Clutter does not strictly depend on
  GdkPixbuf anymore; this means that you will have to include
  <gdk-pixbuf/gdk-pixbuf.h> yourself if you are operating with
  GdkPixbuf objects and not including that header. The GdkPixbuf-based
  API has been removed from Clutter core:

    clutter_texture_new_from_pixbuf
    clutter_texture_set_pixbuf
    clutter_texture_get_pixbuf

  are all deprecated functions. It is still possible to load a GdkPixbuf
  into a ClutterTexture with this sample code:

    clutter_texture_set_from_rgb_data (texture,
                                       gdk_pixbuf_get_pixels (pixbuf),
                                       gdk_pixbuf_get_has_alpha (pixbuf),
                                       gdk_pixbuf_get_width (pixbuf),
                                       gdk_pixbuf_get_height (pixbuf),
                                       gdk_pixbuf_get_rowstride (pixbuf),
                                       4, 0,
                                       &error);

  ClutterTexture also now has a new filename property and
  clutter_texture_new_from_file which is intended as an alternate to
  common previous GdkPixbuf primary usage (i.e loading images from
  disk).

  To read texture data back into a pixbuf or system memory use a combination
  of clutter_texture_get_cogl_texture & cogl_texture_get_data.

  The clutter-gtk integration library has API for using GdkPixbuf with
  ClutterTextures (among others).

  ClutterTexture now supports a keep-aspect property which is set to FALSE
  by default.

* clutter_texture_from_actor will now reparent source actors if they
  are not parented. This behaviour may change in future releases.
  There are known not yet fixed issues with source actors that set
  depth or use clipping.

* The size negotiation API has been completely changed in order to allow
  the creation of non-fixed layout managers. These functions have been
  removed:

    clutter_actor_request_coords()
    clutter_actor_query_coords()

  from the ClutterActor API, as well as their virtual functions inside
  the ClutterActorClass. The size of an actor is now split into two
  different concepts: the preferred size (width and height
  separatedly) and the size that has been allocated by the container
  to which that actor belongs. Clutter still defaults to the fixed
  layout management (i.e ClutterGroup) of the actors, but supports
  fluid layout managers written using the new API.

  Composite actors (actors with 'private' children not implementing the
  container interface) now need to implement an allocate method here pass
  an allocation to any composite children.

* Clutter now depends on PangoCairo for the font rendering. The PangoClutter
  API is still considered semi-private and no guarantees are made on its
  stability.

* ClutterShader API has been slightly changed: the ClutterStage:bound
  property, clutter_shader_bind() and clutter_shader_is_bound() have
  been renamed to :compiled, clutter_shader_compile() and
  clutter_shader_is_compiled(), respectively. The previously semi-private
  clutter_shader_release_all() function is now not exported anymore.

* ClutterStage is not an abstract type anymore: it can be instantiated
  using clutter_stage_new() and it can be properly subclassed. If the
  backend supports multiple stages, every stage will be a new window,
  whose lifetime will have to be managed by the developer. Clutter will
  still create the default stage, and guarantees that every call to
  clutter_stage_get_default() will return exactly the same pointer.

* Actors now have a new 'show-on-set-parent' property set to TRUE by
  default. With this property set to TRUE, actors will automatically
  have clutter_actor_show() called on them when a parent is set (i.e
  added to a container).

* Clutter now features support for multiple stages assuming supported
  by the backend. See test-multistage.c for example of usage. This
  does not change the automatic creation of the default stage.
  A single GL context is used across all stages meaning GL resources 
  are shared. 

* There is now an experimental native iPod Touch/iPhone UIKit backend
  named 'fruity'.

* There is now an experimental native Win32 WGL backend.

* COGL (and therefor Clutter) now optionally features initial support for 
  OpenGL ES 2.0. It features support for shaders. 

* Some more focused timeline unit tests have been added and some tweaks to
  timeline semantics were made; E.g. For a 10 frame timeline here are some
  points about the semantics:
  - When you create a timeline it starts with current_frame_num == 0
  - After starting a timeline, the first timeout is for current_frame_num == 1
    (Notably it isn't 0 since there is a delay before the first timeout signals
    so re-asserting the starting frame (0) wouldn't make sense.)
  - For a non looping timeline the last timeout would be for
    current_frame_num == 10
  - For a looping timeline the timeout for current_frame_num == 10 would be
    followed by a timeout for current_frame_num == 1 and frame 0 is considered
    == frame 10.
  - Asking for a timeline of N frames might better be described as asking for
    a timeline of _length_ N.

* The behaviour of clutter_actor_get_opacity() has been slightly changed;
  instead of returning the composited opacity of the entire parents chain
  of an actor, clutter_actor_get_opacity() does what you mean, and returns
  the opacity set with clutter_actor_set_opacity(). The composited
  opacity value is now returned by clutter_actor_get_paint_opacity().

* Until 0.6, clutter_label_get_color() would have returned a ClutterColor
  with the alpha component equal to the composited opacity of the label.
  Now, clutter_label_get_color() returns a copy of the exact color set
  with clutter_label_set_color().

* The ClutterEntry actor will automatically handle key events inside
  a key-press-event handler. This deprecates the usage of
  clutter_entry_handle_key_event() to update the contents of the
  entry using the ClutterKeyEvent.

* The Clutter X11 and GLX backends feature support for wrapping external
  X Drawables (such as windows as pixmaps) via the 'texture_from_pixmap' GLX
  extension if available and fallback to slower XGetImage copies if not.

* ClutterContainer can have per child custom properties via ClutterChildMeta. 

Release Notes for Clutter 0.6
-------------------------------

* Now that every actor has events, the class signal handlers have been
  removed from ClutterStageClass and moved into ClutterActorClass.

* The CLUTTER_2BUTTON_PRESS and CLUTTER_3BUTTON_PRESS event types have been
  removed in favour of the ClutterButtonEvent:click_count counter

* X11 related called for glx and eglx backends are now shared and moved into
  a clutter_x11 prefix.

* Scaling with gravity functionality was replaced by more generic and
  powerful anchor point.

* The ClutterLayout interface, the ClutterBox and its implementations have
  been moved outside Clutter core.

* The Effects API has been simplified, and it only requires the final value
  of the effect instead of both the start and end value.

* The per-axis rotation API has been deprecated in favour of a single
  pair of accessors, clutter_actor_set_rotation() and
  clutter_actor_get_rotation().

* Every actor sub-class that is overriding the ClutterActor::request_coords()
  virtual function *must* chain up to the parent's implementation in order
  to store the bounding box inside the ClutterActor private data.

* It is now impossible to call clutter_actor_destroy() on the stage. Backends
  will have to unset the CLUTTER_ACTOR_IS_TOPLEVEL private flag to actually
  destroy the stage.

* The default value of the ClutterLabel:wrap property has been changed from
  TRUE to FALSE.

* All the behaviours properties have been renamed to match the $PROPERTY-start
  and $PROPERTY-end convention.

* The clutter_group_add() function has been "undeprecated" and reimplemented
  as a commodity macro; a clutter_stage_add() commodity macro has also been
  added. Both macros just safely wrap clutter_container_add_actor().

* The ClutterContainer::find_child_by_id() virtual function has been removed;
  Clutter keeps track of every actor, so there's no need to recurse into
  containers anymore.

* The unused ClutterActor::set_depth() and ClutterActor::get_depth() virtual
  functions have been removed.

* It is now possible to roundtrip the string created by
  clutter_color_to_string() to clutter_color_parse().

* The amount of motion events is now being throttled using the default frame
  rate setting as the base value to compute the default and maximum frequency
  of motion events to be delivered to every actor.

* ClutterAngle usage has been removed from the public API: it is an internal
  optimization, which can be used for faster angle computations; users of
  ClutterAngle now take a fixed point number in form of a ClutterFixed.

* ClutterGravity usage when scaling has been superceded by the anchor point.

* The precision of the clutter_sqrti() algorithm has been improved for small
  values.

* ClutterBehaviourScale constructor, scale properties and accessors have
  been changed to accomodate the scaling factors on both the X and Y axis,
  matching the clutter_actor_set_scale() function. This also changed the
  clutter_effect_scale() function, which now accepts the final scale
  factor on both the X and Y axis. The gravity property has also been
  removed, as it behaved incorrectly with regards to the anchor point. When
  scaling an actor using a BehaviourScale, the anchor point should be set
  before applying the behaviour (remember to adjust the positioning as
  well by factoring in the anchor point).

* The clutter_do_event() is now public; it can be used to feed an event to
  Clutter and let it generate the capture-bubble signal emissions; it should
  not be used by applications.

* In the X11-based backends, the DestroyNotify event is not propagated to
  Clutter core if the stage is using a foreign window.

* To avoid method name collisions between ClutterActor and ClutterEntry
  in high-level languages, the clutter_entry_set_position() and
  clutter_entry_get_position() functions have been renamed to
  clutter_entry_set_cursor_position() and clutter_entry_get_cursor_position()
  respectively.

Release Notes for Clutter 0.4.0
-------------------------------

* clutter_actor_show_all does not recurse for groups at least (this is to
  match the original group_show_all behaviour). This is like 0.3 but was
  never noted.

* ClutterBox API has changed: clutter_box_pack_start() and
  clutter_box_pack_end() have been removed in favour of the clutter_box_pack()
  API.

* Both clutter_threads_enter() and clutter_threads_leave() have been
  removed from the API, as they just created confusion and the wrong
  idea that Clutter is either thread-safe or thread-aware. Full
  thread-awareness is arriving in the next revision (see bug #429).

* The ClutterBehaviourRotate and ClutterBehaviourEllsipse APIs have been
  overhauled.

Release Notes for Clutter 0.3.1
-------------------------------

* clutter_actor_apply_transform_to_point() parameters changed to use 
  ClutterVertices.

* New 'Native API' backend expects EGL implementation to provide a 
  CreateNativeWindow() API call. 

* Exisiting X11 based egl backend public API calls now prefixed eglx.

Release Notes for Clutter 0.3
-----------------------------

* ClutterTexture changes:
  + clutter_texture_set_pixbuf() now takes a GError paremeter.
  + clutter_texture_upload_data has been split into two new and
    more functional versions; clutter_texture_set_from_rgb_data(),
    clutter_texture_set_from_yuv_data().

* The GLX specific API has been moved to the GLX backend code and
  it's now under the ClutterGlx namespace. 

* The priority of the various users of the GLib main loop has been
  reviewed and changed were necessary. Every paint is queued with a
  priority of G_PRIORITY_DEFAULT + 10; timelines are allocated with
  a G_PRIORITY_DEFAULT + 30 priority; events are processed with a
  G_PRIORITY_DEFAULT priority. This ensures that events are processed
  before the paints take place.

* The ClutterActor::allocate_coords() has been renamed to
  ClutterActor::query_coords(), in order to clarify its usage.

* Actors overriding ClutterActor::request_coords() and
  ClutterActor::query_coords() must convert sizes obtained from the
  public API from pixels to ClutterUnits, using the conversion
  macros found in clutter-units.h. The conversion will be necessary
  until the public API will switch over to returning the generic
  units too.

* Users of Intel video cards should find that disabling sync-to-vblank
  is no longer necessary. In case Clutter applications take really
  long times for redrawing and appear stuck and unresponsive, the
  sync-to-vblank feature might still be the culprit; in that case, use
  "export CLUTTER_VBLANK=none" to disable it and file a bug reporting the
  video card model, the driver version and the X server version.

* ClutterTimeline objects now share the same timeout pool (see the
  ClutterTimeoutPool API). This might cause problems with heavily
  threaded libraries without integration with the GLib main loop.
  If an application experiences bad behaviours during animations
  use "export CLUTTER_TIMELINE=no-pool" to disable the timeout pool.

* clutter_color_parse() now handles color definitions with alpha. Alpha
  will default to fully Opaque rather than fully transparent if not specified.

* The Clutter examples/ directory has been removed and replaced with a 
  tests/ directory.

* The ClutterEvent API has been changed, and specific functions have been
  removed in favour of event-agnostic ones.

* The ClutterStage::input-event signal has been removed. All the events now
  emit the ClutterStage::event and ClutterStage::event-after signals, for
  generic event handling.

* Runtime options now dependant on backend.

* ClutterGroup API to add, remove and list children has been deprecated in
  favour of ClutterContainer API. The ClutterGroup::add and
  ClutterGroup::remove signals have been deprecated:
  ClutterContainer::actor-added and ClutterContainer::actor-removed should
  be used instead.

$LastChangedDate: 2008-07-10 12:54:06 +0100 (Thu, 10 Jul 2008) $