** RELEASE 1.3 of FORMS LIBRARY ***

[Mark Overmars]

                              FORM LIBRARY
                              ============

Version 1.3

I am happy to announce the release of version 1.3 of the Forms Library, a
public domain package for the design of interaction forms. Thanks
to the comments of many of you it has been improved in many respects. The main
changes with respect to version 1.2 are:

- All routine names and constant names have been changed by adding fl_ or FL_
  in front of them. This was neccessary to avoid naming conflicts with other
  packages. This will require some work on your side cause you will have to
  change all names used in your programs. I am sorry for this (but imagine how
  much work this was for me :-). Of course fdesign will generate the new code.
  So if you created your forms with fdesign, simply load them with the new
  version and save them again. This will change all the names in the
  definitions (which is normally the majority of places).

- The forms are now using RGB mode rather than colormap mode. This gives much
  more flexibility. The library internally also keeps a colormap. Hence, all
  current classes that use colormap indices need not be rewritten. You only
  have to use fl_color() instead of the GL-call color() to use this internal
  colormap. See the documentation for details. (If you use free objects or
  your own object classes you might have to change something in the drawing.)

- An object class counter was added. Besides being a useful class, it shows
  how to build classes out of existing objects.

- The drawing of boxes etc. has been improved, giving a nicer appearance.

- Many small improvements and extensions were made (e.g. a new box type
  FL_FRAME_BOX, a FL_RETURN_BUTTON, etc.).

- Many errors were corrected.

The best way to get the library is via anonymous ftp in our archive at
archive.cs.ruu.nl (131.211.80.5) (if you can't do this, mail me).

In the directory SGI you find a directory FORMS that contains all stuff
related to the Forms Library. See the file INDEX there for details. The
package itself is contained in the file forms1.3.tar.Z.
Get it (in binary mode) and type

uncompress forms1.3.tar.Z
tar xvof forms1.3.tar

and you get a directory forms_library. It contains the library, 33 demo's, a
few applications and 70 pages of LaTeX documentation. For those who do not
have LaTeX, the postscript version of the doc can be found in the file
formsdoc1.3.tar.Z in the same archive.

Good luck with it. Please report any bugs, questions, extensions, etc. to
markov at cs.ruu.nl.

Mark Overmars