[Savannah-hackers] submission of Zoomable Visual Transformation Machine - savannah.nongnu.org

[epietrig]

A package was submitted to savannah.nongnu.org
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Emmanuel Pietriga <address@hidden> described the package as follows:
License: lgpl
Other License: 
Package: Zoomable Visual Transformation Machine
System name: zvtm
Type: non-GNU

Description:
This is a re-submission (additional details in Required software).

I would like to open a new project on the nongnu side of Savannah. This project 
will be the continuation of the already existing XVTM (Xerox Visual 
Transformation Machine), which is already distributed by Xerox under an LGPL 
license.

I designed and implemented this library while working for Xerox and 
MIT/W3C. I will leave Xerox at the end of September 2002, and since I will 
continue to develop XVTM (I am going back to MIT where I will resume 
working for W3C), I need to be able to easily share the new code and also 
to allow other people to contribute code (the library is already used 
by 3rd parties ; for instance a university in Sweden). 

I have already discussed this with my Xerox manager, and he agrees with 
me that this is the best way to proceed. So the idea is to launch a new 
project based on the XVTM. As I said, XVTM is already distributed by 
Xerox under LGPL. The new project hosted by Savannah would also be under 
LGPL license.

Now, about the library\\\'s purpose:

It already exists and you can download the latest distribution at 
http://www.xrce.xerox.com/competencies/contextual-computing/vtm/

The VTM (Visual Transformation Machine) is a Zoomable User Interface 
toolkit implemented in Java, designed to ease the task of creating 
complex visual editors in which large amounts of objects have to be 
displayed, or which contain complex geometrical shapes that need to be 
animated. 
It offers features such as continuous zooming (2.5D environment), 
constrained interaction and perceptual continuity in object animations and 
camera movements, which should make the end-user\\\'s overall experience 
more pleasing.

On the programming side, the VTM features a graphical object model that 
makes the task of creating, modifying and animating graphical entities 
easier, allows the definition of custom shapes, all through a simple 
API. The VTM also features smooth zooming capabilities (2.5D/zoomable 
user interface), multiple independent layers inside a single viewport, 
multi-threaded views, and support for exporting SVG documents. 

It has been used for instance to develop IsaViz at W3C 
(http://www.w3.org/2001/11/IsaViz/), a visual browser/editor for RDF 
that represents models as zoomable 2D graphs.

Other Software Required:
You asked \"The key question here is to figure out if your project
can run on a Free Software Java suite
(see http://www.gnu.org/software/java/ for more
information). Could you give us some explanation about
this point?\"

Well, I cannot test XVTM under kaffe, as I don\'t have access to a Linux or 
non-win32 box right now (and I won\'t for the next 3 months). But I suspect 
that the library will not run on Kaffe, or if it does will run badly as it 
makes extensive use of java2D and of the latest packages from SUN like ImageIO, 
or the full-screen exclusive mode, and as it needs an efficient VM.

Does this prevent me from putting XVTM on Savannah? I mean, the other VMs such 
as IBM\'s or SUN\'s are free, and I think they are open-source too. Am I wrong?


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