hi,

announcing 'df3-tools-0.5.0'.

three "big things" have happened since I released the previous (0.4.0) version.

first, a few weeks ago I found an other package on the interweb named
"df3tools", a Python project released in December last year, and entirely
unrelated to the 'df3-tools'.  this has prompted me to settle on a formal name
for the project and use one, hyphenated spelling throughout from now.

second, the 'df3-tools' now is a "proper" package, that is, I'll provide a
single archive from here on.  there are options to build/install only the tools
you select.

third, and perhaps most important, 'df3-tools' has become a "gateway" to XML,
the lingua franca for data exchange.  XML '<volume>' data can be converted to
DF3, and vice versa.

'df3-tools' should build cleanly[*], and install[**] on any 64-bit GNU/Linux
machine, and on 'Cygwin' under Windows.  a packaging script for Slackware is
available on request.

download the source distribution archive from here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ao26MsDL0AQp72xI376eiMxTbraerRkh/view?usp=sharing

its 'md5sum':
a88fe192a2c84c46c13be270afbe6640  df3-tools-0.5.0.tar.xz

the following lists the package content:

-----
 df3
-----

the library, the core of 'df3-tools'.  it provides an API for accessing DF3
files, and is fully documented in section '3' of the man pages.  no "external
dependencies".

note the XML related files will be installed, even if none of the tools get
built and installed.

---------
 df3util
---------

a command-line utility for working with DF3 files.  it has a number of different
commands which cover everything[***] from creating new files to reporting their
contents.  a veritable "Swiss Army knife (tm)"  :-)

building the program requires 'libpng' version 1.4.20 or later.

---------
 xml2df3
---------

a simple command-line utility which converts XML '<volume>'s to DF3.

it comes with a POV-Ray include file which contains two macros to write array
data (adapted from a POV-Ray distribution macro) and to "scan" objects (within
an object's bounding box).

building the utility requires 'libxml2' version 2.9.4 or later.

I posted two items showing off the results of scanning objects with the
'xmlVolumeFromObject' macro.  the knight and rook from the (distribution) scene
file "chess.pov" in p.b.images ('rook + knight'); note camera position and angle
are close but not identical.  the second is an animation of the "Boy Surface", a
shape I took from the povray.general thread "Boy's Surface", posted by Bald
Eagle; the animation was posted in povray.binaries.animations.

---------
 contrib
---------

a collection of archives with a variety of contents.


enjoy, jr.

[*] there are warnings during configuration, about the ('C') pre-processor and
the compiler disagreeing on the "usability" of various header files; I don't
know enough about the GNU autotools to fathom why, and would appreciate someone
telling me how to deal with them.

[**] there is one additional step which is not performed as part of the
installation.  the user's '.bash_profile' or '.profile' needs to set the
'XML_CATALOG_FILES' environment variable to include the newly installed catalog,
typically something like:
      export XML_CATALOG_FILES=\
          "/usr/local/etc/xml/catalog $XML_CATALOG_FILES"

[***] let me know if it doesn't, a "feature request" perhaps?

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