	               		 xvmpeg v.0.1a
				  4-08-1995
	      	     Copyright (C) 1995 Alexandre Naaman
			   <hoser@step.polymtl.ca>

GENERAL INFO
============

This file explains a few little things about xvmpeg. I created xvmpeg kinda
of as a joke (actually, I did it to practice XView). I was inspired by xmpeg 
which is a tk based interface to mpeg_play.

I started writing this program a _long_ time ago but never finished it
because, well, I simply do not have any mpegs on my machine! Also, I now
have Motif so I don't really need this program (the latest version of
mpeg_play is Motif based). This program is only an interface -- it makes a
system() call to mpeg_play.

I don't plan on making many (if any) additions to this program in the
future. Now that I've started using Motif I've dropped XView. Also, I have a
few other programs in the works which I would like to concentrate on (the
most important being a CAD program using OSF/Motif -- really nice if I may
say so myself :)

WHAT'S NEW?
===========

For information on changes that occured from one release of xvmpeg to the
next take a look at the file ChangeLog.

REQUIREMENTS
============

In order to be able to compile and use xvmpeg you will need the following:

1) mpeg_play
2) XView 3.2
3) ANSI-C compiler

1) The latest version of mpeg_play (2.0.1) is Motif based so unless you have
Motif, do not use this version (I don't know if it can be compiled without
support for Motif). If you do not have Motif, you should use version 2.0 of
mpeg_play. They are available as:

   If you do not have Motif:

	ftp://ftp.x.org/R5contrib/applications/mpeg_play-2.0.tar.gz

   otherwise,

	ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/applications/mpeg_play-2.0.1.tar.gz

2) As far as XView 3.2 is concerned, you're on your own! XView 3.0 will not do.
I used some (OK, one) feature that is only available in XView 3.2. For those
of you who are really curious, it's the "File Open" window which makes this
program incopatible with version 3.0. If many people complain I could add a
few defines and make the program work with version 3.0 but it definitely
would not look as nice.

3) What can I say, use gcc!!!

BUILDING
========

For those of you with imake:

 xmkmf
 make
 make install

should be all that's required. You might want to take a look at the
Imakefile to set the installation directory.

Otherwise you can use the Makefile.noimake file which is included. You can
modify the libs and their locations easily from in there.

INSTALLING
==========

For those of you out there who hate doing make installs (even with a -n),
here's what you should do to install xvmpeg.

As root do:

	install -s xvmpeg /usr/local/bin
	install -m 0444 xvmpeg.info /usr/openwin/lib/help/
	install -m 0444 xvmpeg.man /usr/openwin/man/man1/xvmpeg.1x

simple enough :)  Note that I don't put my binaries in /usr/openwin/bin
because I like to know what _I_ compiled.

Once this is done, you should take a look at the man page to figure out
how to finish setting up this app (obviously, this info is in the SETUP
section of the man page).

USAGE
=====

Again, really simple. Syntax is:

	xvmpeg [filename]

No other options for the meanwhile. Check out the man page for more details.

BINARY
======

The binary included in this distribution was built on Linux 1.2.8 , X11R6,
gcc 2.6.3 and is in the a.out format. If you manage to build this application
(toy?) on another platform PLEASE tell me about it. Send me the patches if you 
had to make some modifications to the sources. Unfortunately, the other 
platforms I have access to do not have XView installed so I cannot do the 
porting myself.

TODO
====

Not much, maybye add a tty window so that the output of mpeg_play can be
visualized elsewhere than in /dev/console. BTW, if you want to see any
error messages that mpeg_play spits out, you should have xconsole running.

What's most important, would be to modify my program so that you can have 
the program display the animation in a "neverending" loop (until you hit a 
button to stop the loop).

A few other goodies that I may add some day are:
1) Make Drag'n'drop work;
2) Multi-language support;
3) Allow use of Xresources.

LEGAL STUFF
===========

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
    (at your option) any later version.

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    GNU General Public License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
    Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.


BUGS
====

The only thing you might consider a 'bug' is the way I handle recurring 
keystrokes (for keyboard accelerators) -- current "implementation" is not 
perfect. Also.... when trying to use online help by hitting F1 key in window
managers other than ol(v)wm the application will die! This is a rather bad
bug because my favorite window manager is fvwm!

COMMENTS AND OTHER QUESTIONS
============================

If you have any questions, comments (flames politely ignored), ideas, bug
reports, or you just want to tell me that you like using this program,
please get in touch with me at hoser@step.polymtl.ca. 

Ciao & happy viewing,

Alex. <hoser@step.polymtl.ca>
