Quote:
Originally Posted by asettico
Really interesting, Laurence.
Thank you for this contribute, I also installed the 3dldf-doc package!  |
Thank you, asettico. I wouldn't bother with the 3dldf-doc package. It's quite out of date. The most recent edition of the manual is 1.1.5.1, which is probably the one in that package. I have seen that that package exists, e.g., on my Ubuntu system, but I had nothing to do with putting it together. Nobody told me that they'd done it and I don't know who did. I've never looked to see what's in it.
The manual documents an older version of the GNU 3DLDF program/package, before it was interactive. For a number of years, it has implemented a sort of "scripting language", based on the METAFONT and MetaPost languages, but not sharing any code with those programs. The manual documents a state where GNU 3DLDF was more like a C++ library where the user had to write C++ code to make drawings. Now, he or she just needs to write code in the GNU 3DLDF language, run 3dldf, then MetaPost, TeX and then dvips to make a PostScript file or dvipdfmx to make a PDF file.
I need to rewrite the manual completely and I've made a start on this. I figure it will take about a year to finish it, though. However, there are lots of example files on the website:
The GNU 3DLDF Website
The old manual is still potentially interesting if one wants to know how the program is implemented. However, I've added a lot since it was written.
If you want to try using it, I recommend downloading the entire package from Savannah, which is a platform run by the GNU Project of the Free Software Foundation. It's sort of like GitHub, where I incidentally have some other programs which are also Free Software but not part of the GNU Project.
The main page on Savannah is here:
3DLDF - Summary [Savannah]
You can "clone" the package like this:
git clone https:XXX XXX//git.savannah.gnu.org/git/3dldf.git (Remove "XXX XXX" to get the command --- I had to put them in to keep the forum software from making a link)
The page with info about the git repository is here:
3DLDF - Git Repositories [Savannah]
If you feel like trying it out and need any help getting it up and running, you could subscribe to the mailing list at
help-3dldf Info Page
or just send me an email. My email address is listed here:
The GNU 3DLDF Website
Thank you for your interest and please let me know if I can help in any way.
Laurence