Aquarium
by
Brian R. Glaeske
glaeske@plains.NoDak.edu

OVERVIEW:

This is a BackSpace module that is similar to Fish!ä running on AfterDark in the fact that it turns your screen into a cool place for fish to hang out.  However, the similarity ends there.

Aquarium uses pictures of real fish taken from alt.binaries.pictures.misc that were posted in GIF format.  The fishes movements try to mimic the behavior of real generic fish.  Future releases of the module hope to incorporate some behavior about the behavior of the species that a fish represents.

INSTALLATION:

NeXTStep2.x

Copy the following files into your BackSpace.app directory:
	AquariumView.o
	
Now decide if you want fresh water fish or salt water fish.  Copy one of the directories fresh or salt into your BackSpace.app directory and name it FishFolder.

Under NeXTstep 2.x running the older version of BackSpace, the FishFolder directory must be present in the application wrapper for the module to find it's pictures.  The .o file can be placed anywhere.

NeXTStep3.x

Under 3.x you can put the following files in the place that you normally put BackSpace views.
	AquariumView.BackO
	AquariumView.nib

Choose one of the directories called fresh and salt and move it to the same location as you put the .BackO file, and rename it FishFolder.

ADDING NEW FISH:

You can add any pictures you want of fish, as long as you follow these rules.

	1.	Make the image square
	2.	The area surrounding the fish should be transparent
	3.	Named fish.x.tiff where x is a number between 1 and 20
	
Currently, the .info file is optional.  In the future this might not be true.
 
COMPILING:

NeXTStep2.x

In a the Aquarium directory using Terminal type:
	make -f Makefile2

NeXTStep3.x

In the Aquarium directory using Terminal type:
	make -f Makefile3

TODO:

This is still a very crude little beta release. 
	°	Better "brain".  The fish are pretty stupid right now
	°	A "behavior" file for each image 
	°	Actual movement of fins on the fish.
	°	Time synchronization animation
	°	Better use of the new BackSpace's control panel
	°	Images need some work.  I need a color NeXT, anyone want to give me one?
	° 	Images that cater to color systems as well as gray-scale

BUGS:

Some here and there.  None that stick out like a sore thumb I don't think :-)