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                                  pointless

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PLEASE SEE COPYRIGHT STATEMENT AT END OF FILE
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Introduction
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  Pointless is a presentation tool primarily targeted at the un*x world
  (but we welcome visitors from other worlds!). Presentations are made
  using a simple markup-language (best described as a mix between TeX
  and Pod, and affectionately known as "The Pointless Language"). The
  resulting slideshow is rendered using FreeType and OpenGL for
  optimal visual quality.
  Pointless is designed in a extensible way, allowing the
  user to make simple presentations with minimal effort, yet providing
  for more complicated presentations through the inclusion (or, if
  necessary, coding) of extension modules.
  Pointless is written in C++ and Python and is free software
  distributed under the GNU General Public Licence.

Release 0.x
-----------

  Release 0.x are alpha/beta releases of pointless. This means that
  while we encourage users to download the software and give it a spin
  (remember to report bugs and suggestions!), we do not consider
  pointless ready for production use yet.

Installing pointless
--------------------

  Please refer to the INSTALL file that comes with the source
  distribution. If you are looking for binary packages or wish
  to make one yourself, please read README.BINARY and check 
  http://pointless.dk for updated information.

Quick-start
-----------

  The best way to get started using pointless is to try out some
  of the demo presentations that come with pointless. These may
  be found in /usr/local/share/pointless/pointless, 
  /usr/share/pointless/samples or a similar place (specified by 
  the configure option --datadir).
  Try running a presentation by typing

     pointless /usr/local/share/pointless/samples/viewme.pll

  and try looking at the .pll source with your favorite editor.
  Also, try out the banner feature

     pointless -b "Hello, World"

Note about SDL support
----------------------

  While pointless may be configured to work with either X11 or
  SDL (Simple Directmedia Layer) we should point out that our release
  procedures do not include testing of the SDL configuration. Hence the
  support of SDL is to be considered 'experimental' and at some points
  even incomplete.

Note for NVidia users
---------------------

  Set the environment variable __GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK to a non-zero
  value to lock framerate with vertical sync of screen. Note that
  it only makes sense if your setup is capable of rendering faster 
  than the screen sync in the first place.) In a bash like shell the 
  magic words are:

     export __GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK=1

  In a csh like shell the magic words are:
  
     setenv __GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK 1

Acknowledgements
----------------

  Pointless benefits from the source code and ideas of other open
  source projects, the sourceforge service, and last but not least
  from users providing feedback and ideas.
  
  Other (mainly open source) projects:
    Open Scene Graph (http://www.openscenegraph.org/)
    Simple DirectMedia Layer (http://www.libsdl.org/)
    PyGame (SDL-wrapped-in-a-Python; http://pygame.seul.org/)
    The Tex_Wrap module (http://oedipus.sourceforge.net/texlib/)
    The coin project (http://www.coin3d.org/)
    The Lout project (http://snark.ptc.spbu.ru/~uwe/lout/lout.html)
    The FreeFont project (http://www.nongnu.org/freefont/)

  Sourceforge.net
  	for their superb service to the community

  Individuals:
    Marco Presi <presi@inwind.it> 
        for maintaining the pointless Debian packages
    Christian Laursen <xi@borderworlds.dk>
        for maintaining the pointless FreeBSD packages
    Dag Wieers <dag@wieers.com>
        for maintaining the Redhat8/Redhat9 RPM packages for pointless 
    Peter I. Hansen <pih@bsdmail.dk>
        for maintaining the pointless NetBSD packages
    Matthew Johnson <mjj29@srcf.ucam.org>
        for xml templates

Contact information
-------------------

  Questions, bug-reports and suggestions should be sent to the
  pointless mailinglist: pointless-devel@lists.sourceforge.net

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  Copyright (C) 2002  the authors (see AUTHORS file for list)

  pointless 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

Comments are welcome.

	- the authors

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