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* Piccolo.NET 1.2 Readme file                                                                 *
* Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory                                                       *
* University of Maryland                                                                      *
* http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/                                                                 *
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INTRODUCTION
	
Welcome to Piccolo.NET! Piccolo.NET is a revolutionary way to create robust, full-featured
graphical applications in C#, with striking features such as zooming and multiple representation.
Piccolo.NET is an extensive toolkit based on the GDI+ API.


NEW IN THIS VERSION

In this new version of Piccolo.NET, we have fixed some minor bugs and added a few new features to
both the core and extras packages.  We have also generalized the framework to make it easier to plug
in other renderers besides GDI+.  Using these modifications, we have built an extension to Piccolo
that plugs in a Direct3D renderer, enabling hardware acceleration and potentially significant
performance improvements.


REQUIRMENTS

Installing Visual Studio 2003 is not necessary, but is recommended.  You will, however, need
the .NET Framework (1.1) to run Piccolo.NET applications.  You can download it here:

"http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/technologyinfo/howtoget/default.aspx#section3"


GETTING STARTED

Once you unzip the distribution, you will find the following subdirectories under the "Piccolo.NET"
root directory:

    ./Bin     - Contains all the files necessary to use Piccolo.NET.  Note, this directory is only
		included in the compiled source distribution
    ./Source  - Contains all of the source code for Piccolo.NET.
    ./Doc     - Contains the API documentation.
    ./Samples - Contains Various samples.

Piccolo.NET comes with several DLLs and XML files, located in the ./Bin directory.  Note, If you
downloaded the source distribution, you will have to build these DLLs yourself.  The DLLs and their
associated XML files are:

   UMD.HCIL.Piccolo.dll         - This dll contains the Piccolo.NET 2D graphics framework.
   UMD.HCIL.PiccoloX.dll        - This dll contains non-essential, but useful Piccolo framework code.
   UMD.HCIL.PiccoloDirect3D.dll - This dll contains an extension to Piccolo that uses Direct3D rather
       	                          than GDI+ to do its rendering.
   UMD.HCIL.Piccolo.dll.xml     - This xml file is necessary to provide intellisense support for
               	                  UMD.HCIL.Piccolo.dll, within the Visual Studio.NET IDE.
   UMD.HCIL.PiccoloX.dll.xml    - This xml file is necessary to provide intellisense support for
			          UMD.HCIL.PiccoloX.dll, within the Visual Studio.NET IDE.
   UMD.HCIL.PiccoloDirect3D.xml - This xml file is necessary to provide intellisense support for
                               	  UMD.HCIL.PiccoloDirect3D.dll, within the Visual Studio.NET IDE. 

To use Piccolo, you simply need to add references to these DLLs in your Visual Studio project.  If
you move the DLLs to another location, you should move the XML files with them.  Otherwise,
intellisense won't work correctly in Visual Studio.


DOCUMENTATION

The API documentation is located in the "./Doc" directory.  There are three files:

   Piccolo.NET.CHM           - This is an help file containing the API documentation.
   Piccolo Help Setup.msi    - This is a setup package that will install the Piccolo.NET
                               documentation into Visual Studio.NET.  Note, this file is only
                               included in the compiled source distribution
   ChangeLog.txt             - This file contains a record of all changes made since the last
                               version of Piccolo.NET


Double clicking on the "Piccolo.NET.chm" file will open the API documentation in the html help
viewer.

Double clicking the "Piccolo Help Setup.msi" file will install the documentation into Visual
Studio (2002 and 2003 only).  It will add a new filter in the Visual Studio Help, called
"Piccolo.NET."  Note, If you downloaded the source distribution, you will have to build the
msi yourself.


MORE INFORMATION

More Piccolo documentation can be found on the Piccolo Website: "http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/piccolo"


LICENSE

Piccolo.NET is an Open Source distribution.  But, to use the code, you must agree to the terms of
the BSD public license.  More information can be found on the Piccolo website.  The license is
included below for your reference.

Piccolo.NET BSD License
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Copyright (c) 2003-2006, University of Maryland
All rights reserved.
 
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted
provided that the following conditions are met:
 

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions
and the following disclaimer.  Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other
materials provided with the distribution.  Neither the name of the University of Maryland nor
the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this
software without specific prior written permission. 

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR
CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER
IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT
OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
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