#tux4kids chat log for 2002-08-16

Summary

This chat was mainly done because many of the admins felt we had gone too long without any realtime discussion. Here is the beginning of the thread on the t4k-admin list. Primarily many things relating to tuxtype2 dev branch were discussed.

• The much famed and anticipated tuxtype2 dev branch finally made it into CVS. This branch had been hacked on by new project manager Jesse Andrews as well as contributions from Calvin Arndt. This branch sees Tux Typing finally having truetype font support so that alternative character sets and languages can be better supported. Additionally, Tux of Math Command's engine has been ported to Tux Typing, so that additional gameplay types have been added. The tuxtype2 branch can be browsed online here and you can get daily CVS snapshots of it here. If you haven't already, you really should go check them out! You will undoubtedly be impressed!
• There was some minor reminders of the correct way to include SDL header files. Basically, read this FAQ and remember to use 'sdl-config' in your makefiles/build-scripts. Everyone, please bear in mind that without this convention, many platforms could not be easily supported!
• Bill Kendrick pointed us to this interview at OSNews.com. Many congrats to Bill and all of his efforts.
• Jesse also pointed out the great font resource from the FSF. At this URL you can find free UCS (Universal Character Set) fonts. These fonts are 'free' as in 'freedom', and ready for use in applications like ours. This is something that has been discussed at length over at the Tux Paint mailing list.
• Jesse had a great idea for a new gameplay type for Tux Typing. His idea set Tux hopping along floating ice-blocks as the player types in sentences scrawled on them. Tux would jump from word to word when the player pressed 'space'. You can see a concept shot of what it might look like here.
• We were contacted by some developers from India who expressed interest in our project.