Gdk-pixbuf 0.1 has been released

[Miguel de Icaza <miguel nuclecu unam mx>]

Hello guys,

   I have just released gdk-pixbuf, the new image loading system for
GNOME.  This is intended to replace Imlib in the long term.  

   We are releasing this piece of software because a number of new
applications depend on it and we have been telling people "Get it from
the CVS", which is not always good for development.

   This does not replace Imlib currently, that is a task we have left
for the gnome 2.0 phase.

   Availability:

	ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/gdk-pixbuf

   You will need gnome-libs-1.0.40 to use gdk-pixbuf.

* What is Gdk-Pixbuf

   gdk-pixbuf is a library that loads images in a number of different
formats and puts them on an ArtPixBuf structure.  ArtPixBuf is part of
the LibArt library that is part of Gnome-Libs package.

   Usually you would manipulate this image using the Libart functions
for transformations (affine transforms, which are pretty powerful).
Then the rendering to the screen is done with the GdkRGB module in
Gtk+

   This means that we are reducing the code we are using in the long
term (yes, that is correct, we will be reusing more of our existing
code).

   Unlike Imlib, Gdk-pixbuf provides no caching (although a caching
interface is planned for the future), handles memory allocation
correctly (reference counting is correct) and it also handles the
alpha channel correctly.

* Note

   gdk-pixbuf API is by no means stable.  It is still evolving and it
is very very likely to change.  You have been warned.

* The developers

   Mark Chrichton and Larry Ewing are the main authors.  Federico Mena
is the new maintainer as Mark has returned to classes and Larry is
overloaded as usual.

	Mark Chrichton (crichton@gimp.org, Main hacker)
	Larry Ewing (lewing@gimp.org, Hacker)
	Federico Mena (federico@redaht.com, New maintainer)
	Michael Meeks (mmeeks@gnu.org, Fixing guy)
	Miguel de Icaza (miguel@gnu.org, original dude)
	Rasterman (raster@valinux.com, original image loading code)
	Raph Levien (raph@acm.org, JPEG color indexing code).

Long live the Bonobos!

Miguel.