[comp.archives] [comp.ivideodisc...] Galatea 2.5 Alpha

danapple@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Daniel I. Applebaum) (03/31/91)

Archive-name: hardware/video/galatea/1991-03-30
Archive: media-lab.media.mit.edu:/galatea/galatea.2.5a.tar.Z [18.85.0.2]
Original-posting-by: danapple@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Daniel I. Applebaum)
Original-subject: Galatea 2.5 Alpha
Reposted-by: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti, MSEN)

An ALPHA versino of Galatea 2.5 is now available via anonymous ftp from
media-lab.media.mit.edu (Internet 18.85.0.2).  Feel free to take a copy
of this software.  I would most appreciate any bug reports, as I hope to
create a more solid version in the next month or so.

This version does *not* have up-to-date man pages or documentation, so
not all of the command available in Glib or gman are documented.  I
don't believe that any preexisting interfaces have changed, so there
shouldn't be any gross errors.  If you have previously installed Galatea
on your system, you should have no problems updating.  The protocol is
backward compatible.  In other words, any old clients should work
perfectly with a new server, although clients compiled with the new Glib
may not work with a 2.4 server.

I don't believe there are significant bugs, but I don't want to promise
anything.

A list of changed between Galatea 2.4 and Galatea 2.5 follows

Daniel I. Applebaum
[danapple@media-lab.media.mit.edu]

=========

This is a list of changes noting the major differences between Galatea 2.4
and Galatea 2.5 (3/12/91)

+ Server now additionally supports the NEC PC-VCR.
+ G_INT32 is now the primary unit of communication for Galatea.  Glib is
  now more portable to architectures with non-32-bit int's.
+ The mount and unmount calls now take an extra "options" argument.
+ PostScript client interface for use with NeWS clients.  (Glib.ps)
+ New Glib call GGetSpeed()
+ New Glib call GPlaySequence()
+ New Glib call GOpenedHost()
+ New Glib call GDub() (Not in Glib.ps, yet.)
+ New Glib call GVideoCopy() (Not in Glib.ps, yet.)
+ New Glib call GErrorString() (Not in Glib.ps, yet.)
+ Some errors while opening devices are now non-fatal.
+ Changed GPlaySeg() to accept CURRENT_FRAME for start frame.
+ Speed argument for GPlaySeg() is now automatically corrected for
  direction.
+ GConfigure() now takes VIDEO_CHAN to support video muting.
+ Added async request forwarding, but this is as yet untested.
+ Server will no longer hang on incomplete client data.  New internal
  functions serv_full_read(), serv_acceptint(),serv_acceptstring() and 
  tunable MAX_BLOCK handle timeouts on reading from clients.
+ Running the server with the -devices option will cause the server to
  print out the supported devices, then exit.
+ Created new subdirectory under 'server' called 'dcm' which contains
  all of the device dependent "Device Control Modules" for the Galatea
  server.  Adding a new DCM involves modifying the Makefile and models.h
  in server/dcm, adding the code for the new DCM to that directory, and
  recompiling the server. 
+ Added an extension mechanism to Galatea which is compatible with all
  old clients and servers.  It exists in a subdirectory of 'server' 
  called 'ext'.
+ Added a new command to gman to handle the playing of sequences with 
  the new GPlaySequence() library call.
+ gman is a lot easier to use, with better prompting and script 
  capability.
+ greset will try to use GRebuild() to do a reset if the kill(2) 
  does not work.
Changes by Russ Sasnett:
+ Server now supports the Pioneer LDV-4200.
+ rpd structure now contains an extension element.
+ Build operation has been extensively improved.  See documentation.
+ Corrected errors in Sony and VDP50 drivers for variable speed playback.
  Sony now plays reverse segments.
+ Corrected UNIX domain socket code in Glib and server.
+ Added RETURN_NOW_WITH_SPEED flag to GPlaySeg().