GRX Graphics Library

The latest official public release GRX v2.3 is available from this site. Make sure you get all three files:
(grx23.zip, grx23fnt.zip and grx23rme.1st) and carefully read the instructions below and in grx23rme.1st before installing GRX.

Contents

• New features in GRX v2.3
• GRX supported platforms
• Installing GRX
  • Unzip the GRX archives
  • Set the environment variables
  • Compiling GRX
  • Testing GRX
  • Installing GRX for your compiler
• Important
• Older GRX versions
• Help
• Known problems
• Info on v2.4 development
• GRX related links
• GRX mailing list

New Features in GRX v2.3

• Thomas Hahn ported GRX to DEC alpha systems
• Ulrich Leodolter contributed his latest X11 driver. Several X11 problems (readpixel, color handling in pseudo color mode) should be fixed now. Additionally GRX will run on X11R5 systems now.
• Vincenzo Morello contributed the addons/ctx2jpeg source
• Andris Pavenis contributed the memory driver and the addons/print sources
• Gary Sands ported GRX to Watcom C++ (32bit, V11.0, other versions may work)
• Michal Stencl contributed the image handling code and the addons/bmp sources
• code portability has be greatly enlarged. GRX should be easily portable to new compilers now.
• BCC port should now work on all Borland 16bit compilers (Tested with BCC 2.0, 3.1 and 4.52)
• GRX will work on big endian systems (sparc)
• GRX has 64bit support
• GRX uses a more flexible scheme for temporary memory allocation now. Depending system and the SMALL_STACK switch either alloca or malloc will be used. GRX allocates an internal buffer for blit blits, scanline return, etc now
• GRX supports a platform independent keyboard interface
• Nearly all frame drivers have be optimized for performance
• On Linux systems GRX can be build as shared lib
• New GRX functions:
  • GrFloodFill
  • GrGetScanline
  • GrGetScanlineC
  • GrPutScanline
  • GrGetLibraryVersion
  • GrGetLibrarySystem
  • GrAllocEgaColors
  • GrImage....

A detailed changelog is available

GRX Supported Platforms

Currently GRX directly supports the following platforms:

GRX should work on any X11R5 (or later) system after a few changes in makedefs.gnu and makedefs.x11.

Most makefiles (DJGPP and Unix systems) require GNU make

Installing GRX

Unzip the GRX archives

1. create a directory for the GRX file tree. Examples:

   DJGPP:	DJGPP/contrib/grx23
   Linux:	/usr/src/grx-2.3

2. unzip the GRX source archive in the GRX dir:

   DOS:	pkunzip -d grx23.zip
   Unix:	unzip grx23.zip

3. unzip the GRX font archive in the same base dir:

   DOS:	pkunzip -d grx2fnt.zip
   Unix:	unzip grx23fnt.zip

Set the environment variables

1. set the default driver and graphics mode info:
   SET GRX20DRV=<driver> gw <width> gh <height> nc <colors>

   (very useful but not required)
   Available drivers for

   DOS :	stdvga, stdega, et4000, cl5426, mach64, ati28800, VESA, memory
   Linux:	svgalib, xwin, memory
   X11:	xwin, memory

2. set the GRX font dir
   SET GRXFONT=<directory for the GRX fonts>

   This is required for GRX graphics text output. Path: <GRX base>/fonts

   NOTE:

   You can define a default font directory when compiling GRX. E.g, if you installed the fonts in /usr/local/lib/grx/fonts add     CCOPT += -DGRX_DEFAULT_FONT_PATH="/usr/local/lib/grx/fonts" to makedefs.gnu (Linux / GNU-make example)

Compiling GRX

This is only required if there's no pre-compiled GRX for your system or you want to change GRX or the library configuration.

1. Go to GRX base dir and check the makefile and makedefs file for your system setup
2. Switch to src sub dir and check the makefile
3. run make -f <your makefile>
   (some system may need additional arguments here !)
4. if every thing worked fine go to <GRX base>/test, check the makefile and build all test files / examples:
   make -f <your makefile>

Testing GRX

1. go to <GRX base>/bin and run the modetest program. If you don't have a modetest (or modtst16) binary, do need to compile GRX first.
2. Build and run the other examples (see above)

Installing GRX for your compiler

You'll either need to copy some GRX files to places where your compiler will find them (1) or to change your compiler setup so it will find the GRX files in their default place (2).

1. Copy the library from <GRX base>/lib/<your system> to the compiler library directory.
   Copy the header files from <GRX base>/include to your compiler include directory
2. See compiler documentation. Either change the default compiler behavior (eg., change djgpp.env) or use command line switches to tell the compiler where to find the GRX files.

Important

Older GRX Versions

Some information for older GRX version is still available. See GRX v2.2

Help

If you have problems installing or running GRX check this site (http://www.gnu.de/software/GRX/) for updates, pre-compiled libs, ... first.

Check out the known problems with the current release before reporting a problem or bug

If this doesn't help, check your system/compiler FAQ (eg., the DJGPP v2 FAQ is at http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/v2faq/)

Check out the DJGPP newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp (archive at http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/mail-archives/)

Send a problem report to the GRX mailing list, to comp.os.msdos.djgpp or sven@rufus.central.de.