What is it?

Xiqual started out as a library of functions to make 2D games, with the goal of having at least some sprite functionality and tile map routines, plus a smattering of utility functions.

It has since started to grow a bit beyond that, with the addition of CGI and net libraries and even an SDL GUI system making decent progress (bar some total redesigns).

Current features

• Linked list handling, and circular lists
• INI-style file read & write (preferences with variable handling)
• IFF FORM read & write (datafiles with binary data, fast lookup)
• Simple XML parser (no serious manipulation yet)
• Amiga-style taglist functions (used by many subsystems)
• Extra string functions (some due to Win32 lacking good ones)
• Thing-functions for game objects (game logic)
• Full-featured CGI library with cookie support
• MD5 sum functions (from the fastest PD sources I could find)
• 'views' - small fields with background storage (sprites, mousecursors etc.)
• Server library for select() servers (handle many clients without threading/forking)
• SDL startup code (pass some tags, have graphics ready, and audio if SDL_mixer support is compiled in)

With the basic release, you can get started on Linux, FreeBSD and a few other Unix-like operating systems, provided you have SDL and SDL_image installed. The CGI and tool libraries have compiled successfully and been tested on both big- and little-endian CPUs. libxicgi and libxitools will both compile out of the box on nearly any architecture.

Where to get the basics

You need a working C compiler, as ANSI compliant as possible. The one shipped with Solaris/SunOS has worked before; your favour with the gods may influence your luck.

To use the SDL parts, both libSDL and libSDL_image are needed. There's no way around it, unless you want to remove some image support. Personally, I think Windows BMP files are a crock of shite, as they're largely distributed in an uncompressed format. Stick to PNG, which has some compression (non-lossy), or JPEG, which will be around 2-3 times as good, at slight loss of quality.

SDL_mixer and SDL_ttf are also supported in the startup-code.

SDL's homepage is http://libsdl.org. If you are using Debian, there is a package for every major SDL component, including SDL_net and SDL_mixer. I personally recommend getting a source for each if you are on Sid, though. Again, this depends on whether you've given tribute to the loas.

What about Win32?

There are project-files for building in VC++. Everything seems to work, but you must also get/build all the relevant SDL libraries (SDL, SDL_image, SDL_ttf, SDL_mixer).

Contacting me

If you really need to contact me, I check my e-mail regularly. It's nny at purehatred dot org. I might be on IRC randomly, on the Open Projects Network IRC servers. Try logging on to irc.debian.org and keep an eye out for EvilIdler. The other evil guys are impostors.