alart 0.1.0

License

alart is free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3 (or any later version). This is version 0.1.0 (codename: “Ablaze”) of the program.

Installing

# pip install alart

# easy_install alart

# python setup.py install

Dependencies

Python 2.5 is required, though newer versions might be needed for Encapsulated PostScript support.

alart depends on cairo and cairo’s Python bindings for generating images. Version 1.6 is needed for best output support, but earlier versions (e.g. 1.4) works ok. To install it, do one of these things:

• For DEB-based distros (Debian etc.): type apt-get install python-cairo

• For RPM-based distros (Fedora etc.): type yum install pycairo

• For other distros: do something similar or get it at http://cairographics.org/download/

alart depends on PyGame 1.8.0+ (perhaps earlier versions are also supported) for showing generated images. If you only want to generate images, not show them in an interactive window, you do not need PyGame graphics and sound. To install it, do one of these things:

• For DEB-based distros (Debian etc.): type apt-get install python-pygame

• For RPM-based distros (Fedora etc.): type yum install pygame

• For other distros: do something similar or get it at http://pygame.org/download.shtml

Using

To use alart, just run alart. This will display a generated image with default options. To generate a new image while in the window, press R.

To see a list of alart’s command-line options with explanations, run alart --help. To see alart’s module help, run pydoc alart. Example programs using alart as a module can be found in the examples directory.

Developing

alart is written in Python and uses Git for branches. To get the latest branch, get it from gitorious.org like this:

$ git clone git://gitorious.org/alart/alart.git

Bugs can be reported at ns@metanohi.org (address of sole developer)

This document

Copyright (C) 2010 Niels Serup

Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright notice and this notice are preserved. This file is offered as-is, without any warranty.