mirror of
https://github.com/brl/mutter.git
synced 2024-11-23 16:40:41 -05:00
089b9b545e
Use separate files, to avoid making the XML too big and uneditable. This breaks the PDF build.
104 lines
4.0 KiB
XML
104 lines
4.0 KiB
XML
<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
|
|
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" [
|
|
<!ENTITY appurl "http://www.clutter-project.org">
|
|
<!ENTITY docurl "http://docs.clutter-project.org/docs/clutter-cookbook">
|
|
]>
|
|
|
|
<chapter id="introduction">
|
|
<title>Preface</title>
|
|
|
|
<epigraph>
|
|
<attribution>The Perl Cookbook</attribution>
|
|
<para>Let me show you that easy way, so others may easily follow.</para>
|
|
</epigraph>
|
|
|
|
<para>There is a wonderful simile in the preface of the <emphasis>Perl
|
|
Cookbook</emphasis>: approaching a programming problem is oftentimes
|
|
similar to balancing Columbus's egg. The initial difficulties of dealing
|
|
with, and more importantly solving, problems in the computer programming
|
|
field sometimes can only be overcome if somebody shows you how to use a
|
|
new tool. This is true for programming languages but also for programming
|
|
libraries.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>This book has been written to try and give you a reference on
|
|
how to solve common issues that you might have to face when using
|
|
the Clutter toolkit.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>This book is not meant to be a replacement for the API reference,
|
|
even though there will be descriptions of how Clutter works and how
|
|
its API looks like. We will require knowledge of the Clutter API, but
|
|
we will also point out where to find more information on the API that
|
|
examples have used.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Indeed, this book should be used as a companion to the API reference,
|
|
expanding the examples and showing how to achieve a specific result.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>This is not a book for learning Clutter. This is also not a book
|
|
for learning C, or GObject or even GUI development.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Above all, this is a book for learning <emphasis>more</emphasis>
|
|
about Clutter, and about how to use it in the most efficient and easiest
|
|
way. It is meant to help you move past the basic usage of Clutter.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>This book is divided into chapters. Each chapter is dedicated to
|
|
a specific class, like ClutterTexture, or a specific area, like animations.
|
|
Each chapter starts with a short introduction, followed by different
|
|
<emphasis>recipes</emphasis>. Each recipe starts with a problem, or a short
|
|
statement describing what we want to achieve; a solution, containing the
|
|
source code; and a discussion section, where the code is explained, where
|
|
alternative approaches might be useful, caveats and references to the
|
|
Clutter API for furher studying.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>This book, in the cookbook spirit, can be accessed mostly at
|
|
random.</para>
|
|
|
|
<section>
|
|
<title>About Clutter</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>Clutter is an free and open source software library for creating
|
|
portable, dynamic, compelling and fast graphical user interfaces.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Clutter uses OpenGL (and, optionally, OpenGL ES on mobile and
|
|
embedded platforms) for rendering the user interface elements, but
|
|
at the same time it exposes an application program interface that hides
|
|
the underlying complexity of the OpenGL state machine from the
|
|
developer.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>The program interface of Clutter is intended to be easy to use,
|
|
efficient, flexible and as self-documenting as possible.</para>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section>
|
|
<title>About this document</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>This document is available in various formats like HTML, and
|
|
PDF.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>The latest version is always available at
|
|
<ulink url="&docurl;">&docurl;</ulink>.</para>
|
|
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section>
|
|
<title>Acknowledgments</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>This book has been written taking the inspiration from the Perl
|
|
Cookbook, authored by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.</para>
|
|
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section>
|
|
<title>Where to get Clutter</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>You can obtain Clutter from <ulink url="&appurl;">&appurl;</ulink>.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Clutter is also available on all major GNU/Linux distributions,
|
|
in various package formats.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>On OSX, Clutter is available with both Fink and MacPorts.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Binaries for Microsoft Windows are also available.</para>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
</chapter>
|