[UFO Chicago] Clockwork Programming Language version 0.1.1a release!

[Paul Suda]

I learned quite a bit from my last release of the Clockwork Programming
Language in this forum, so I'm doing another one to see if I have some of
the configure script problems with the last release solved. The main thing
about this release is that the configure script should work much better
under a wider variety of systems, and there are a few minor bug fixes.

I told some of you at the end of the last meeting that it would be done
sooner, sorry about the delay. I wanted to give it a good test on my new
Debian installation (courtesy of pedro, thanks) before the next release.
But then I ran into troubles with getting X11 to work in debian, and got
called for jury duty downtown, and wound up a few days behind.

All of you debian users that had trouble before will probably have a much
easier time building and running it. I have tested this under an
installation of Debian 2.2 (potato) with the X11 and GL developer packages
installed. It compiled and ran the test programs fine.

The project homepage is:
  http://www.manufaxure.com/clockwork

The source can be downloaded from:
  http://www.manufaxure.com/clockwork/download.php

So, download it and give it a try. The README and INSTALL files have
instructions for building and testing it. If you get to the step where you
run 'make test' and the 6 demos run ok, then that's good news and it built
fine on your machine. Either way, please send me a quick email and let me
know how it goes. After I get a few responses confirming that the install
process will indeed work on a machine other than my own, I will probably
get another release out real soon with some new features I'm working on.
Look forward to some new rendering effects involving lighting as well as
some new demos.

PS. Peter, I talked to you about setting up an email list for clockwork on
the tastytronic server at the last meeting. If that offer is still
available, I would love to do that. I'll leave the name and configuration
of the list up to you, just let us know when it's ready to use and we can
move any discussion about the clockwork programming language over there. If
you have any questions for me, or if there are any list maintenance
responsibilities I can help with, let me know.

PPS. What do you debian veterans use to configure X? I tried XF86Setup,
which was ok but I still had to hand edit /etc/X11/XF86config before video
really worked right. I also tried the xf86config program, which I am used
to using from a few years ago, but now seems antiquated and awkward.
xf86config actually got my video settings to work better, but then it
configured my mouse wrong and I had to, again, hand edit
/etc/X11/XF86config to get it to work. Maybe I'm missing something, but I
had this experience on both of the systems I installed with debian. I don't
mind hand editing config files very much, but I would prefer something a
little more quick and friendly and that does a better job with hardware
auto detection.

thanks,
Paul