-- README for XCruise (version 0.24)
XCruise - A directory browser
Copyright (C) 1999 Yusuke Shinyama <euske@cl.cs.titech.ac.jp>
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., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
--
CHANGES
Jan. 24, 2000
Version 0.24
- Bug fixes:
On some platforms xcruise-0.23 get extremely slow
(thanks, Synap). I've tested on GNOME environment,
with Enlightenment, Sawmill and traditional Twm.
Jan. 23, 2000
Version 0.23, mainly for bug fix.
Probably this version works correctly on Gnome/Enlightenment
environment.
- New features:
Add '-titlemode' option to show information in
window's title bar, and you can freeze this with 'f' key
(thanks, Bernard).
Add '-viewall' option allowing to show 'dot files' and
files right under the root (thanks, Nix).
- Bug fixes:
Fix some lacking arguments in fprintf (thanks, Gabriel).
Use X events FocusIn and FocusOut instead of EnterWindow
and LeaveWindow (thanks, Roger).
Use a good way for getting mouse events
(thanks, Alan, David and Ryan).
Dec. 2, 1999
Version 0.22
Bug fixes in draw.c (Thanks to Naoki Oshiro) and task.c.
Nov. 25, 1999
Version 0.2
Put under GPL, some bugfixes, make sources a bit tidy.
Unify xcrvar.c into main.c.
Nov. 22, 1999
Version 0.1
Post to fj.sources.
WHAT IS XCRUISE?
XCruise allows you to ``cruise'' within a 3D-formed file system.
It constructs the universe from a directory tree, and you can
move your viewpoint with mouse.
1. Analogies
Directories : Galaxies (Pale blue or white rings)
Files : Planets (Solid circles with warm colors)
Symbolic links : Wormholes (Green curve lines)
2. The radius of a planet is determined by its mass.
(proportional to the cubic root of the file size)
3. The color, the position and the direction of a star
are determined by its file name.
a) Stars whose name resembles each other are placed close.
b) Stars whose name is short are placed close to the
center of the parent galaxy.
c) Stars which don't have read permission are displayed purple.
4. When you approach a galaxy, you ``enter'' the galaxy
and it is set as a ``current galaxy.''
Stars in the current galaxy appears bright.
5. The universe (root directory) appears a blue ring.
Move a white cursor with mouse. The left button causes forward
acceleration. The middle button causes backward. You can
accelerate more quickly with the right button. When you release
the buttons, your ship stops. Press Q key to quit.
F key to freeze the screen.
If you want to change star colors, the file XCruise.ad.
Enjoy a nice cruise! Take care of motion sickness.
TECHNICAL NOTE
This program uses readdir and lstat to get directory
information. When you come a galaxy nearer, this program
``expands'' the galaxy and scans the directory recursively.
When you leave the galaxy, it is ``collapsed'' to free memory.
Wormholes are drawn as cubic berier curves.
HISTORY
When I was a university junior, I heard that tree-like file
systems are not necessarily appropriate to us since we sometime
remember objects with spatial hints. And I was inspired with
this idea. First I developed this program on Macintosh SE/30
and ported to UNIX with monochrome X terminals. That is why
this program supports -monochrome mode (but it is too slow).
I wish this program inspire anybody to develop more user-friendly
interfaces.
MACHINES
Linux 2.2
Solaris 2.6 (use gcc)
Digital UNIX 4.0
NEWS-OS 4.1 (use gcc)
IRIX 6.3
FreeBSD-3.2R
OpenBSD 2.6
XCruise will basically work on any machine which has X.
HOW TO INSTALL
% xmkmf -a
% make (or make CC=gcc)
% ./xcruise
LICENSE
This program is distributed under GNU General Public License.
(including this document, anybody fix this poor English!)
AUTHOR
Yusuke Shinyama
Email: euske@cl.cs.titech.ac.jp
http://tanaka-www.cs.titech.ac.jp/%7Eeuske/
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