$Id: README,v 1.1 1999/12/12 22:55:43 rogue Exp $

This is the README file for Xforge, a M*tif wave editor. Please read the
file LICENSE for licensing information, and INSTALL for information on how
to install Xforge.

1.  What is Xforge?

Xforge is a graphical wave editor for UN*X systems with X11 and M*tif.
The name is derived from popular PC/Windows wave editor Sound Forge, and
the goal of Xforge project is to provide similar wave editing facilities
to UN*X world, but as free software.

Though Xforge supports multiple wave formats, it is not a wave format
converter; there exists a wonderful utility called Sox for that purpose.
You will find that Xforge supports very few wave formats at the moment.
Are you interested in coding decoders / encoders for your favourite file
formats?

Xforge was written by Xforge project. Currently, that is:
Pekka Honkanen <phonkane@cc.hut.fi>
Xforge has nothing to do with Helsinki University of Technology.

Note that Xforge is not public domain; read the file LICENSE for licensing
details.

2.  Supported machines

Xforge development is currently done with i386 linux (Slackware 3.5.0)
machine, so you can count on it working with similar configurations.
Also, I can test Unixware 7.0.1 and FreeBSD 2.2.6-RELEASE (without audio
playback - the machine does not have a soundcard). So far, I have also
been able to compile Xforge (without sound support) in Digital Unix 4.0
(Alpha), HP-UX 10.20 (PA-RISC), and Solaris 2.5.6 (Sparc). Other systems
are not currently supported. Are you interested in porting Xforge?

Xforge requires X11R5 and Motif - lesstif will also work (versions 0.83,
0.85 and 0.88.9 at least). For audio playback, OSS drivers are required
(they exist at least on Unixware, and Linux kernel includes the free
version). You will also want plenty of memory for editing large files,
since Xforge currently operates only in core. Data is handled in floating
point values, with buffer specific undo buffers, so you can account for much
more memory than the wave consumes disk space.

Xforge is made of C, so a C compiler is of course required unless you can
find someone who can provide you a binary. The Xforge project won't.

3.  Acquiring Xforge

Currently, Xforge can be acquired from following URL:

http://www.hut.fi/~phonkane/xforge/

I will consider ftp://metalab.unc.edu/ or such later.

4.  Bugs

Certainly many. I try to keep some quality in releases... Worst malloc()
bugs should be gone by the time you are reading this. There are some problems
will the selection display (use View->Refresh menu button if the selection
appears odd). With Lesstif, you are likely to have problems with tearoff
menus and file selection dialogs (though I have not had any after upgrade
to 0.88.9).

Have you found a bug? Come on, tell it to me. Otherwise it may never get
fixed. Don't send me core dumps however - I can't do anything with them
and I find large emails annoying. Much more informal is a description of
how to reproduce the behaviour you consider a bug, the machine details,
etc. You are free to fix the bug, too, and send me the diffs if you get
really excited :-)
