* Description:

An animation platform:

Xieps is animation software with support for interaction
experiences. Xieps is not a tool for creating audio or graphics, but
rather for composing them into animated stories.

The Xieps software project attempts to help authors and artists create
cross-platform native running animated movies, interactive books or
games for as many devices as possible.

* Focus
- Allowing the artist to express visual stories with images and
  audio. Animated movies, interactive books, non-linear stories, etc.
- Offline play. Work can be distributed as a native running program
  for mobile devices or desktop computers. Users can have a native
  copy to play offline.
- Portability. Cross-platform.
- Design/write once and build versions that target mobile devices or
  desktop computers.

** Portability and Language
Xieps is implemented in the C programming language which gives it
potential to stay fast and more easily portable to desktop and mobile
devices. The C language is ubiquitous and most other languages already
have ways of working together nicely with C. One goal of Xieps is
easily interfacing with other programming languages and we'd like to
support as many languages as possible.

** Programming APIs and Visual Tools
Xieps does not attempt to remove the user from the world of
programming. Those that avoid programming where programming excels
often pay a lofty price. Sometimes there is no better way to solve a
problem than through language. For various good and bad reasons (all
too often for ignorance on the subject) many have tried to create
visual tools to replace programming. While some progress has been made
much failure has also occurred. There are certain things that visual
tools excel at and there are certain things that formal languages
excel at; however, sometimes you don't know until you try! With that
said, our first priority are the programming interfaces. If underneath
there is a good clean programming interface visual tools can more
easily be added when and where they make sense.

* Book-like video game or book-game
A book-like video game or "book-game" is:
- Intended to be like a story book.
- Intended to run natively not be hosted.
- Cross-platform. As many as we can reasonably support.
- Design once and build for multiple platforms.


* Goals

1. Ease for authors to create books. Considered as perhaps the top
priority. Give authors a platform to create digital interactive book
with ease.

2. Native over Hosted. The book-games standalone as executables and
run natively rather than being hosted (on the web).

3. User autonomy and ownership. The choice to create native
executables rather than making books available through hosted web
application was made because I want users to own their books and have
an actual copy, source code and all. No DRM, usage tracking, ability
to revoke access to books etc.

4. High quality. The book-games should look and feel modern, fast, smooth.


* Step-by-step rough example:
Step #1: Build

./configure && make

Step #2: Create a my_book.xml file.

<book>
 ...
</book>

Step #3: Build app

src/xieps my_book.xml

Step #4: Run app

build/latest/<platform>/my_book

* Relevant resources
http://developer.gnome.org/glib/
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/tutorials/l-glib/section2.html
http://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/
http://check.sourceforge.net/
https://www.gnu.org/software/automake/manual/automake.html
http://socgsa.cs.clemson.edu/seminar/tools06/resources/08_autotools/automake.htm
http://www.lrde.epita.fr/~adl/autotools.html
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/manual/gnulib.html#Philosophy

* Related Solutions
http://alternativeto.net/software/adobe-flash/ (list)
https://www.adobe.com/products/flash/features.html
http://www.synfig.org/cms/
http://stencyl.com/
http://unity3d.com/
http://www.compilgames.net/
http://www.coffeecup.com/firestarter/
http://www.coffeecup.com/animation-studio/
https://www.toonboom.com/
http://scratch.mit.edu/

* Image manipulation
** ImageMagick

Home Page:
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php

Concatenate images together (to makes sprites).
http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/montage/#concatenate


* About animation stuff in general
** 2D/2.5D Graphics (a largely antiquated technique since 3D acceleration)
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.5D
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isometric_graphics_in_video_games
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_%28computer_graphics%29
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitter
** Features ideas in animation software
http://blog.ninapaley.com/2013/01/03/its-2013-do-you-know-where-my-free-vector-animation-software-is/
** Tweening
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inbetweening
** Ray Tracing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_tracing_%28graphics%29
** Bezier Curve
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9zier_curve
http://www.math.ucla.edu/~baker/java/hoefer/Bezier.htm
*** Bezier Curve Math
http://moshplant.com/direct-or/bezier/math.html

*** sdlgfx Bezier Curve
http://www.ferzkopp.net/joomla/content/view/19/14/
http://www.ferzkopp.net/joomla/software-mainmenu-14/4-ferzkopps-linux-software/19-sdlgfx
int bezierColor(SDL_Surface * dst, Sint16 * vx, Sint16 * vy, int n, int s, Uint32 color);
int bezierRGBA(SDL_Surface * dst, Sint16 * vx, Sint16 * vy, int n, int s, Uint8 r, Uint8 g, Uint8 b, Uint8 a);
** Other Effects
http://hosted.zeh.com.br/tweener/docs/en-us/misc/transitions.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_blur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_warping
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphing
** Libre Graphics Meeting
http://libregraphicsmeeting.org/
** SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics

* Other software
http://www.maefloresta.com/portal/about

* More
** About glib as dependency:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732822/portably-include-glib-headers-in-autoconf-automake
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14824860/adding-glib-to-an-existing-application-with-gnu-toolchain-configure-makefile
http://www.appgamekit.com/code-snippets.php
** Gettext
http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_node/Overview.html
* Sprite Databases
http://www.spriters-resource.com/arcade/cadillacsdinosaurs/sheet/54402
* C/GCC
Transactional Memory
http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/TransactionalMemory