README file for DrawView version 1.00
DrawView is an application that allows Draw files created by the Acorn/RiscOS application Draw, and other compatible applications, to be displayed on a Linux or other Unix system. It is written in C++ and released under the GNU GPL.
DrawView requires the Qt 4 libraries (version 4.1.0 or later), available from www.trolltech.com or included in many Linux distributions. Qt/X11 is free for use and development of open-source applications. It may in theory be possible to run DrawView under Windows or MacOS using the appropriate Qt package; however, these may require a separate licence.
The file is displayed in a desktop window which can be scrolled and zoomed as required. The drawing can be exported in PDF or PostScript format for printing or use in other applications.
The file formats supported, and their original Acorn file types, are:
Plain Draw file DrawFile (AFF) Draw, many others Draw file with extra data DrawFile (AFF) DrawPlus Compressed Draw CmprDraw (C4B) Chameleon, Poster, Vector Compressed with extras VecFile (C56) Vector Draw with tagged objects Poster (CC3) Poster
All types of standard Draw objects, and the additional ones provided by Vector, are supported and displayed. There are some features that it is not possible to reproduce exactly, due to limitations in the Qt library or the underlying platform, but the results obtained should be as close as it is possible to achieve. See the home page for further information.
Best results for text display are obtained if a good selection of TrueType fonts are installed. The mapping between the original Acorn font names and available fonts is configurable.
The source download (with some example files) and further information is available from the home page:
http://www.keelhaul.me.uk/acorn/drawview/
See the INSTALL file within the source archive for installation instructions. In fewer words, this follows the standard GNU build/install system:
unpack the source archive
./configure [options...]
make
make install
drawview [file...]
This is a work in progress; further facilities and improvements are planned. Reasonable suggestions, bug or problem reports are welcome.
Jonathan Marten
jjm@keelhaul.me.uk